Helena Berman
Partner - Head of Private Wealth & Pensions Disputes, London
Helena Berman is a leading pensions and private wealth dispute resolution expert, regularly advising on complex, high-value pensions, contentious trust, probate and family matters.
Awards and Recognition
Biography
Language - English
Jurisdiction - England & Wales
Helena Berman is the head of Stephenson Harwood’s pensions and private wealth disputes team in London. With over 30 years’ experience in complex, high-value pensions, contentious trust, tax and probate/family disputes, Helena is recognised as a leading industry figure. She acts for corporates, trustees, financial services firms, financial institutions, insurers, and HNW individuals and families.
Helena has acted on a number of high-profile reported cases and has successfully challenged orthodox thinking on important legal issues, such as the law of limitation and the construction of trust documents. Helena is considered an expert on the construction and rectification of trust documents. Helena also specialises in professional negligence claims related to all of these specialist areas, acting for both defendants and claimants, where she applies her deep knowledge of the areas in which she specialises to obtain exceptional results - primarily via dispute resolution methods such as settlement/mediation of these claims, allowing clients to avoid mounting litigation costs.
Helena is ranked in Legal 500's Hall of Fame for Pensions Litigation, and noted by the guide as a Leading Partner for Contentious Trusts and Probate. She is also recognised by Chambers UK as a Band 1 practitioner for pensions disputes, and by Chambers HNW for private wealth disputes.
Helena sits on the Dispute Resolution Committee of the Association of Pensions Lawyers and is regularly invited to speak at industry conferences and contribute to leading publications. She is the co-founder of the Fresh Perspectives conference, a flagship summit in the contentious trusts industry which brings together solicitors, barristers, offshore lawyers and trust practitioners to discuss topical issues within the sector.
Experience - Pensions disputes
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Representative beneficiary cases
- British Telecommunications plc v BT Pension Scheme Trustees Ltd and another [2018] EWHC 69 (Ch)
- SPS Technologies Ltd v Moitt and others [2020] EWHC 2421 (Ch)
- BBC Pension Scheme
- BP Pensioner Group
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Northumbrian Water
Acting for Northumbrian Water in Part 8 proceedings to establish the proper operation of increased provisions in the scheme, which are linked to the funding position of the Scheme. The scheme is currently in considerable deficit. The Trustee has adopted an interpretation of the scheme rules under which members' benefits would be increased at a much higher rate than previously.
The increase provision is highly unusual as it is linked to the level of scheme funding with specific roles for the scheme actuary in the awarding of increases. This type of increase provision is therefore unique in previous pensions cases.
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Trustee of a billion+ fund
Advising on the wording of the amendment power in the Fund Rules, and whether certain historic amendments using this amendment power have been validly introduced. More specifically, the amendment power prevents amendments that in the opinion of the actuary substantially prejudice the rights or interests of member without previous written consent.
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One of the largest industry-wide pensions schemes in the UK
Acting on a complex construction/rectification application being brought by the Trustee of one of the largest industry wide pension schemes in the UK.
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£1.7bn pension fund
Acting for the Trustee of this £1.7bn pension scheme in the pursuit of complex professional negligence claims, based in breach of contract and tortious duties, against both a strategic investment advisor and the controller of a synthetic overlay platform which uses derivative trades to quickly implement revised asset allocations.
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Complex technical financial services, regulatory and professional negligence issues
Instructed by the trustees of this significant scheme on losses suffered by the Scheme during the LDI crises in late 2022 arising out of Liz Truss's "mini budget". As with a large number of pension schemes, the Scheme had invested significant assets in pooled funds. This was a complex and time-consuming exercise, which required input from expert witnesses, particularly because gilt yields were fluctuating significantly on a minute-by-minute basis during the critical period in September and October 2022.
This case involved complex and technical financial services, regulatory and professional negligence issues, showcasing Helena’s breadth of expertise across all aspects of pension scheme related litigation and beyond.
Experience - Private Wealth disputes
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UHNW family disputes
Helena is the trusted adviser to children of a high-profile deceased UHNW individual, in relation to various aspects of their long running dispute with their father (who died in late 2022). The dispute between Helena’s clients and their father has been the subject of significant media attention, and our work on this matter has required a complex and technical strategy to outsmart a range of carefully drafted legal restrictions.
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Oil trading magnate
Worked with our client to prepare a mistake application in Jersey to set aside the adverse tax consequences of negligent tax advice provided by another firm when making endowments to a Jersey foundation. This involved extensive investigation into the underlying evidence, within the context of various limited authorities and novel interpretations of existing statute. Helena was successful in persuading the Court to set aside the relevant endowments and entirely eliminate the IHT liabilities. This was an exceptional outcome for our client, and a landmark victory for our team as it represents only the second ever case in the Jersey Courts which has succeeded in setting aside endowments to a Jersey foundation.
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The minor and unborn children of two trusts
Seeking the Court’s approval under the Variation of Trusts Act 1958, to an arrangement in which each Trust would be varied so that its accumulation period would be extended, in order to give the Trustees flexibility to accumulate income during the remainder of the Trust period. Helena completed the application to in an almost impossibly short timetable (a matter of weeks) in order to avoid the Trust reaching the end of its accumulation period (which would have had very significant adverse financial consequences for all beneficiaries).
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The beneficiary of an Estate in dispute
Supported our client, a disinherited family member, in a contentious probate requiring the examination of testamentary capacity (with expert evidence) and complicated issues relating to undue influence, which required advising our client in relation to the detailed cost consequences of each claim.
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Son of a dynastic UHNW family
Advising our client, one party in a significant intra-family dispute over the division of the family's wealth. We were required to issue a complex and uncommon contested rectification application in the context of a private trust. Helena was instructed on this matter due to her specialist knowledge of this highly technical area, and the breadth of other practice groups the Stephenson Harwood team can seamlessly work with to provide a full spectrum service to the client.
NEWS AND INSIGHTS
Stephenson Harwood lawyers named in Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyers list
Ten Stephenson Harwood lawyers listed in Spear's 2024 rankings
Nine lawyers featured in Spear's Magazine's 2023 rankings