Patrick Kennedy's international experience

Patrick has extensive international experience arising out of his UK pensions legal advisory and trustee work including the following:

• Belgium. Due diligence enquiries with the Belgian based chairman of trustees concerning historic pension equalisation issues and a transfer to a mirror image scheme.

• Brazil. Acting as trustee for the City of London based subsidiary of a Brazilian bank's pension scheme.

• Canada. Acting upon commercial negotiations involving a Canadian parent company and the trustees of its UK pension arrangement. This involved challenging negotiations with Canadian business leaders held in our UK offices.

• China. Acting on the winding up of a defined contribution arrangement based in the UK with a Chinese parent company.

• Denmark. Advising on a pension scheme apportionment arrangement which took place upon the reorganisation of a Danish company's UK subsidiaries.

• France. Work on an apportionment arrangement following the reorganisation by a French parent company of its UK group which operated in the aviation sector.

• Germany. Dealing with section 75 pension liability issues for a UK entity with a German parent operating in the optics sector. Another matter involved assisting trustees of a UK entity with a German parent company in the nuclear industry. The German parent made an application for clearance to the Regulator. We assisted the trustees in hard fought negotiations which resulted in over £20 million being paid to the scheme.

• Hungary. Advising the national bank of Hungary's UK subsidiary on its pension arrangements. This involved winding up the pension scheme as part of the Hungarian push to comply with European Union convergence criteria.

• Iceland. Acting for the UK-based subsidiary of an Icelandic parent company. This included liaison with a European holding company based in the Netherlands and part of the Icelandic owned group.

• India. Conducting negotiations concerning the funding of pension schemes with Indian based parent companies.

• Ireland. Advising a consortium bidding for the purchase of a nationalised utility industry based in the Republic of Ireland.

• Italy. Acting as trustee of pension schemes operating in the banking sector with Italian parent companies. On one appointment, it was important to ensure a smooth handover upon a change of leading individuals and deal with the application of Italian mergers and acquisitions law and practice to a UK pension scheme.

• Japan. Acting as trustee of pension schemes where the UK sponsoring employer has a Japanese parent company. In each case, an understanding of the parent company's requirements has been essential.

• Malaysia. Advising the trustees of a pension scheme operated by a UK based subsidiary of a Malaysian entity. This involved extensive liaison with the Malaysian company's in-house legal counsel.

• Mexico. Acting as trustee for the UK pension scheme of a subsidiary of the national bank of Mexico.

• The Netherlands. Negotiating with the Dutch based parent company of a UK subsidiary which operated a UK-based pension scheme. This has involved obtaining Dutch legal advice on a guarantee provided by the parent company to Entrust.

• Norway. Acting for the UK-based subsidiary of a Norwegian shipping and logistics company.

• Spain. Acting as trustee of a pension scheme operated by a UK subsidiary of a Spanish entity. This involved applying Regulator guidance to the specific circumstances of a Spanish owned company. Patrick Kennedy has also spoken at the Association of Pension Lawyers' conference in Barcelona.

• Switzerland. Acting for a UK-based subsidiary of a Swiss entity operating in the aviation sector. This involved a successful liability reduction exercise.

• USA. Assisting with UK-based pension arrangements where the parent company is based in the USA. This included one particularly acquisitive market leading US entity with worldwide interests. Patrick Kennedy has worked in Allen & Overy's New York office.