Elinor Samuel
Elinor is a senior associate in the Derivatives & Structured Products Group at Travers Smith. She advises a diverse range of clients, including asset managers, banks, financial institutions, UK pension schemes, funds, and corporates, on the structuring and implementation of derivatives products.
Elinor is experienced in drafting, negotiating, and advising on ISDA, GMRA, and GMSLA documentation, as well as bespoke agreements to hedge market risks such as interest rates, FX, and commodities exposures. She regularly assists clients with custody, clearing, and collateral management arrangements (including CSAs/CSDs for both VM and IM), and advises on related regulatory frameworks such as EMIR/UK EMIR, SFTR/UK SFTR, and CSDR/UK CSDR. Her regulatory practice covers optimisation projects, trading policies, and remediation strategies to rectify gaps in compliance.
Elinor also advises pension scheme trustees on covenant and investment matters, including bilateral and agency trading documentation, investment guidelines, and investment management agreements for fiduciary and segregated mandates.
Practice Area
Panel
- Contributing Author
Qualified Year
- 2020
Membership
- Several ISDA working groups
- Women in Financial Markets (WIFM)
Qualifications
- GDL, LLM Commercial Legal Practice (2018)
- Bachelor of Arts (BA), Politics of the International Economy (2016)
Education
- BPP Law School (2018)
- Kings College London (2016)
1 Contributions by Elinor Samuel
PRACTICE NOTES
UK occupational pension scheme trustees: drafting and negotiating discretionary investment management agreements: key regulatory and commercial issues
The management of assets belonging to another person on a discretionary basis is a 'regulated activity' overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
As a general position, trustees of occupational pension schemes (Trustees) are not typically authorised by the FCA, or under applicable legislation, to manage most categories of scheme assets. Consequently, Trustees must pass day-to-day investment decisions to an FCA-authorised party to implement investments on their behalf. A frequent approach is to appoint an investment manager (the Manager), which constitutes a delegation of their core investment responsibilities. When a Manager is engaged under a discretionary investment management agreement (an IMA), the Trustees confer their discretionary investment powers. The scheme employer may also join the IMA to meet requirements connected to recovering VAT—see Practice Note: VAT and pension scheme costs. In contrast to investment advisory mandates or non-discretionary management arrangements, the Manager is empowered to execute transactions for the Trustees. Accordingly, it is vitally important that the Trustees are clear about the scope...
Pensions
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