Michaela Berry

Michaela Berry is a partner at Sackers (Sacker & Partners LLP), widely regarded as the United Kingdom's leading specialist pensions law firm. She has been named Pension Law Expert of the Year in the United Kingdom at the Corporate INTL Global Awards 2025, recognising many years of experience advising on the full range of issues that arise in occupational and personal pension provision.

Berry has spent her career at Sackers, joining the firm in 1991, becoming an associate in 1996 and being admitted to the partnership in 1998. That long tenure at a firm devoted entirely to pensions has given her a deep and continuous grounding in a technically complex and constantly evolving area of law, and a detailed understanding of the practical concerns of the trustees and employers she advises.

Her expertise spans a wide range of pensions matters, including the establishment and winding-up of pension schemes, scheme mergers, and advice on the pensions aspects of corporate acquisitions and disposals. She regularly guides trustees and employers on compliance with the extensive body of legislation governing pension schemes, helping them meet their duties while managing risk. Within the firm she heads the public sector team, advising local authorities and private employers on public sector outsourcing and related questions, such as establishing passport schemes and securing admission to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), an area that demands particular knowledge of the rules applying to public service pensions.

Pensions law sits at the intersection of trust law, employment, corporate activity and detailed statutory regulation, and it carries significant financial and human consequences for scheme members, employers and sponsors alike. Advisers in this field must combine technical precision with sound commercial and practical judgement, whether they are structuring a scheme, guiding an employer through a transaction or helping trustees navigate their governance and compliance obligations. Berry's breadth of experience across scheme set-up and wind-up, corporate transactions and public sector arrangements places her well within this demanding discipline. Pensions law in the United Kingdom is among the most technically demanding areas of legal practice, shaped by layers of legislation, extensive regulation and a body of trust law that governs how schemes are run and how members' benefits are protected. Trustees and employers face continual change, from evolving funding and governance requirements to the challenges of managing legacy defined benefit schemes and the growth of defined contribution provision, while public sector arrangements add a further layer of complexity with their own statutory frameworks and rules on admission and outsourcing. Berry's long specialisation, her leadership of public sector work and her active role in the profession's representative bodies place her among the experienced practitioners on whom trustees and employers rely.

An active member of the professional community, Michaela Berry is a full member of the Association of Pension Lawyers and has served on the committee of the North London Group of the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association. Practising at a firm consistently recognised as the market leader for pensions work, she exemplifies the specialist expertise for which Sackers is known. Her recognition as Pension Law Expert of the Year in the United Kingdom at the Corporate INTL Global Awards 2025 reflects the standing she has earned among trustees, employers and public sector bodies over more than three decades in pensions law.