It is suddenly cool to be a pension lawyer.
?When you told someone you were a pension lawyer, you were the most popular person in the room for people over 50 and people under 50 would try to dodge you,? said Mitch Frazer, chair of the pensions and employment practice at Torys LLP.
?Suddenly it?s a topic of interest for a much wider group of people,? added Mr. Frazer, who is listed at Band 2 for pensions in the Chambers Global 2013 guide. ?If you would?ve said pre-2008 that you would have seen a federal election campaign where the word ?pensions? was uttered in the context of the top list of people?s promises, it would have been incredibly shocking.?
Ten years ago, pension lawyers were dealing with surplus disputes rather than deficits. After the global economic crisis and with an aging population, the public is keen to protect public pension plans. With the spotlight shining on pension law, could this be a golden age for pension lawyers?
Band 2-ranked practitioner Elizabeth Brown of Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie LLP believes so.
?I?ve been doing this since 1990 and over the course of my career, I?ve seen the role and profile of a pension lawyer go from backroom techie to centre stage,? she said. ?People are very concerned about aging and living longer. There?s a concern that retirement money will run out. People are very concerned about how much money is available and have promises been kept.?
Defined-benefit (DB) pension plans are being replaced by defined-contribution (DC) pension plans as employers try to reduce their risk in volatile economies.
?It?s a time of transition and the transition is taking place over a long period of time,? said Ian McSweeney, a Band 1 ranked pension lawyer with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP.
?We?ve gone from an era of surplus, what to do with excess money, to how to plan and maintain affordable and sustainable pensions. Sponsors are looking at their current DB plans and wondering whether they?re sustainable. You add on top of that general austerity measures that are affecting both private and public plan sponsors and it?s a difficult time.?
On the plus side, the word ?pension? is on the front of newspapers and is top of mind; on the minus side, the publicity and legal changes stem from pension plans being in dire straits, said Andrew Harrison, a Band 3 practitioner with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.
?The interest in [pensions] is the result of people not getting what had been promised or what they had hoped for through the pension system. As much as it?s interesting to be asked these questions and to be involved in trying to solve them, it?s within a constrained economic environment. There?s not [enough] money to do what needs to happen.?
Meanwhile, provinces are updating their laws and a recent court ruling has pension lawyers analyzing the implications. Last month, the Supreme Court of Canada released its long-awaited decision in Sun Indalex Finance LLC vs. United Steeworkers et al., a case that pitted the claims of pensioners against those of secured creditors in a corporate bankruptcy or restructuring. The decision reversed a lower-court ruling from Ontario that had ranked pension plans ahead of interim lenders during a supervised sale of the company under a federal law called the Companies? Creditors Arrangement Act or CCAA.
?This is the greatest time of challenge because so much is happening and there is so much change. Our pension funds are global players ? how do we deal with the regulatory hurdles in Canada? How do we deal with all of the changes that are coming through in legislation?? Mr. Frazer said.
?My hope is that in five years from now, we?re going to see much more consistency and a much more effective use of pensions. Hopefully, there will be more people who have pensions, or are more conscious about retirement.?
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