Global legal practice Squire Sanders has significantly expanded its pensions practice across the UK with the hire of two new partners: Anthea Whitton, who will join the Leeds office from Pinsent Masons and Helen Miles, who will join the Birmingham office from DLA Piper.
The news follows last month’s announcement that another pensions partner, David Griffiths from Eversheds, will be joining the Manchester office of Squire Sanders. He advises employers and trustees on all aspects of pension schemes provision, from set-up to wind-up, including mergers, transfers and funding.
Like Griffiths, the latest partner hires are experienced pensions specialists, highly ranked in the independent legal directories and widely recognised in their markets for their expertise, technical ability and commercial sense:
- Anthea Whitton advises on all aspects of occupational pension schemes, with specific expertise in acquisitions and disposals, funding and scheme re-structuring, as well as pensions disputes.
- Helen Miles is an expert on the pensions aspects of corporate transfers, acquisitions and outsourcing, and advises both pension trustees and employers on scheme mergers, transfers, re-structuring and wind-up.
Squire Sanders also announces further expansion to its pensions teams in Birmingham, Leeds and London:
- In Birmingham, the promotion to partner of Georgina Rankin from 1 May, the hire of associate Victoria Leybourn from Browne Jacobson and the return to the team of senior associate Clare Grice.
- In Leeds, the hire of senior associate James McLeod from Herbert Smith.
- In London, the hire of associates Amit Ingle from Eversheds and Sian Williams from Shoosmiths, where they will also be joined this July by senior associate Rozet Shah from Mayer Brown.
Catherine McKenna, global head of pensions at Squire Sanders, said: “We welcome all our new members to the group. Every one of them has the kind of specialist know-how and commercial approach to client advice that makes for such a strong fit with our pensions practice. We have had another very successful year of growth with increased demand for our services. This investment in the practice, across all our UK offices and overseas, is for the long term, to ensure we continue to provide all our clients with the best possible pensions law advice and help them meet and exploit future challenges and opportunities.”
The new appointments will take Squire Sanders’ market-leading Pensions Practice Group, a key practice in the global firm, to 18 partners and over 60 pensions law specialists in the UK, further supported by pension and benefit specialists in the US, Europe and Australia. The team, which in 2011 was hailed as both Global Pensions Law Firm of the Year and European Pensions Law Team of the Year, continues to attract a diverse and prestigious client base: alongside advising many household names in the private sector, and an increasing number of public sector bodies, the pensions practice also has particular strengths in utility companies ranging from water to nuclear energy.
