APL Conference 2023
Manchester

Claire Carey

APL Chair

Claire Carey is a partner at law firm Sackers and heads up their knowledge team, ensuring clients and lawyers at kept up-to-date with pensions related developments. Having served on a number of committees over the years, Claire is the current Chair of the Association of Pension Lawyers. In her spare time she enjoys watching most sports, but football and rugby in particular, and is an avid fan of Liverpool FC.

Rosalind Connor

ARC

Rosalind worked at Gouldens, Jones Day and Taylor Wessing before joining Arc in its early days at the start of 2016. She has been managing partner of the firm since 2020. Rosalind has served on the International Committee, been APL Secretary and then Chair, and then joined the L&P Committee. Recently, she has been involved with the L&P’s work on dashboards, scheme funding and regulatory powers and appeared in front of the W&P Parliamentary Select Committee on behalf of the APL, an experience she does not recommend.

Sandisiwe Dhlamini

TPR

Sandie is the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion lead at TPR having joined the organisation in June 2022. She most recently worked at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as the Head of Policy Transformation and Diversity & Inclusion. She is a CIPD accredited HR professional with over 10 years’ experience in the public sector. She is responsible for promoting equality, diversity and inclusion both within TPR and the wider industry.   

Simon Evans

CMS

Simon Evans is part of the CMS Pensions team, dealing with contentious and non-contentious matters. His experience includes advising Coats Group on defending and settling a long-running FSD investigation, establishing the largest asset backed funding arrangement to date, and advising a number of trustees through distressed employer situations and underfunded wind ups.

Ben Fairhead

Pinsent Masons

Ben is a litigator with a focus on pensions-related disputes.

This includes extensive experience of acting and advising in relation to pension scams matters.  He has been acting since 2011 for professional trustees appointed by TPR dealing with the aftermath of pension scams, recovering assets where possible and seeking Court directions where needed. 

He has also acted for many clients grappling with claims arising from transfers between schemes where scam activity is suspected, including representing Royal London in the case of Hughes v Royal London.    

Ben has been a member of the Pension Scams Industry Group since it was formed.  

Ian Gordon

Gowling WLG

Ian is a partner at Gowling WLG and heads up its Pensions Disputes practice.
The team specialises exclusively in seeking to resolve issues and disputes involving occupational pension
schemes.

Andrew Harper

Sackers

Andrew is a senior associate at Sackers.  Holding dual qualification in England & Wales and Scotland, Andrew advises trustees and employers around the UK (sometimes further afield) on a wide range of pensions matters, including risk transfer transactions, pensions tax issues and dealing with historic issues.  

Andrew is a member of the Future Leaders in Pensions committee of the APL and has shadowed the L&P committee over the course of 2023

Luke Hartley

Grant Thornton

Luke is head of Pensions Advisory at Grant Thornton. He joined as a partner in 2022, following a six-month secondment at the Pensions Regulator, having previously worked in covenant advisory for more than 15 years across two leading independent advisory firms. His experience covers the whole spectrum of covenant advisory services, including triennial reviews, annual monitoring, corporate restructuring and M&A activity, from both trustee and sponsor perspectives, across a range of sectors and scheme asset sizes. He has also worked on a number of high-profile regulatory engagement and enforcement matters.  

Jonathan Hawkins

Bravura Solutions

Jon is a fintech leader with over 25 years’ experience across pensions, platforms and business-focused technology. He began his career in pensions administration and is now Principal Consultant and Pensions Specialist at Bravura. He’s the lead architect for their Pensions Dashboards ISP solution and workplace savings strategy.

He is a platform speaker, webinar and podcast host, as well as an active, opinionated, and quirky influencer on social media. He’s Pensions Age’s Personality of the Year 2023, thanks to his efforts in uniting the industry and sharing best practice in the Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP).

Dawn Heath

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP

Dawn is a pensions partner at Freshfields.  She advises across a full range of pensions issues, with a particular emphasis on pensions issues on corporate transactions and employer distress, complex scheme funding/covenant support arrangements and de-risking/managing surplus.  She is the current chair of the APL Legislative and Parliamentary sub-committee, having served on that sub-committee for a number of years and having previously served on the Investment sub-committee (as it was then called).

Nicholas Hill

Outer Temple Chambers

Nick has a substantial pensions law, commercial disputes and professional negligence practice. He has particular expertise in cross-over financial services work, gained in-house at the General Counsel’s Divison of the FCA.  He is ranked as a Leading Junior in The Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners, most recently described as “simply a star of the Bar. Good humoured, commercial, clients absolutely love him.”

David James

Travers Smith

David is a partner specialising in pensions law at Travers Smith. David is also a member of the Pensions Scams Industry Group. 

Pete Jennings

Just Group

I am currently Head of Sales in the DB Risk Transfer team. I’ve worked in life insurance for 20 years, the last 6 of which have been pension risk transfer. 

My team are responsible for managing and executing Just’s bulk annuity transactions. This includes the initial pipeline discussions with consultants, the ever more important triaging of opportunities, proposing the premium to quote and negotiation of legal terms. 

Prior roles include strategic pricing of Just’s Guaranteed Income for Life Proposition and managing a group life insurance portfolio at a mutual.

Henry Legge KC

Five Stone Buildings

Henry has acted in many of the leading cases in the pensions arena, including (most recently) Axminster and Univar.  He also contributes the chapter on pensions to the OUP book Directors’ Duties (now with Tom Robinson) – which seems to be surprisingly popular.

Ferdy Lovett

Sackers

Ferdy advises clients from a wide range of industries and acts for trustees of pension schemes and employers on technical and strategic matters.  Recent work has included acting on closures to future accrual, sectionalisation projects, funding discussions as well as risk transfer work.

His practice also focuses on DC pensions and he has recently assisted a client obtain master trust authorisation from the Pensions Regulator. He has particular expertise in auto-enrolment and an interest in other areas where employment issues meet pensions law. 

Ferdy is chair of the International sub-committee of the APL.

Rebecca McKay

Just Group

I joined Just’s in house Legal team as a Senior Solicitor 2 years ago (November 2021) and support the business on all aspects of DB scheme risk transfer, ie buy ins and buy outs. 

Before that I was a private practice lawyer for over 15 years specialising in pensions.  Firstly at Allen & Overy, then Dentons and finally in the pensions team at Trowers & Hamlins.  In private practice, I advised both employers and trustees on a wider range of issues, including risk transfer projects.  

I am a member of the APL Investment sub-committee and chair of the PLSA South London Group.  

Edwin Mustard

Shepherd and Wedderburn

To follow

Rachel Pinto

HSF

Rachel Pinto is a partner in Herbert Smith Freehills' Pensions team. 

She is experienced in advising both sponsoring employers and trustee boards on a wide range of projects, including scheme mergers, scheme restructuring, liability management exercises, proposals regarding scheme funding and changes to benefit design. She has particular expertise in de-risking transactions through the insurance market, acting for both insurers and trustees. 

Rachel is listed in both Chambers and the Legal 500. She is a member of the APL's Legislative & Parliamentary sub-committee

Carly Rees

PPF

Carly is a Managing Counsel in the PPF’s Legal Team. She leads on legal advice and support for the Fraud Compensation Fund, PPF Levy, Information - and, following on from her previous Legal Counsel specialist Pensions role and private practice experience, provides the PPF with additional legal management and support for Pensions. Carly is also keen to support others to enter the legal industry – recently hosting in-house work experience for aspiring lawyers on the 10,000 Interns programme.

Anna Rogers

ARC

Anna qualified into pensions at Nabarro Nathanson in 1985, ignoring advice to specialise in a field with "more longevity". After moving to Rowe and Maw in 1987, she became a Partner in 1989. The merger with Mayer Brown in 2001 created an international pensions team, and she became Head of UK Pensions in 2007. In 2015 Anna left to found pensions specialist firm Arc Pensions Law.  She is a fellow of the PMI and has been a member of the PLSA's Policy Board and currently its DB Committee. From 2013 to 2015 she was Chair of the APL. 

Emma Rubenstein

PPF

Emma is a Legal Counsel in the PPF Legal Team.  She has been at the PPF since 2016 when she joined as a Paralegal, and subsequently qualified in 2022.  She is lucky enough to work across all legal areas at the PPF and has a specific interest in the interaction between these areas and data and cybersecurity issues.

Hannah Savill

Sackers

To follow

Dan Schaffer

Slaughter & May

To follow

Sian Stubberfield

TPR

Sian joined TPR in August 2018. Prior to TPR that she was at Government Legal/TSOL, and, before that, was in private practice. Since being at TPR, Sian has worked on various aspects of the Superfunds & DB Alternative workstream, Master Trust Authorisation and supervision, in addition to ED &I.

Matthew Swynnerton

DLA Piper

Matthew is a partner at DLA Piper where he heads the London Employment and Pensions team. He advises on all aspects of pensions law and recent notable work includes advising Uber on its automatic enrolment duties following the recent Supreme Court judgement on worker status and, as a member of the Pension Scams Industry Group, helping draft key legal sections of the Combatting Pension Scams Code of Practice and Practitioner’s Guide, which received widespread praise from the Pensions Regulator, the Pensions Ombudsman and the Pensions Minister. He has been described by a leading pensions KC as having "an extensive knowledge of pensions law and practice, very sound legal judgement and good commercial sense.”

James Walmsley

Wilberforce Chambers

James has been at Wilberforce since 2007 and has extensive experience in pensions cases in both the regulatory and non-regulatory sphere. He has particular experience in the moral hazard powers arena having being been instructed in relation to cases such as BHS, Box Clever, Lehman, Nortel, Great Lakes and Meghraj, among others.

Debbie Webb

WTW

• Scheme Actuary with over 30 years’ pensions experience, focussing on advising Trustees of larger pension schemes on all aspects of strategy, funding and other actuarial matters.
• I lead the WTW thought leadership activities of the specialist group assisting consultants with valuations.
• I am passionate about trying to ensure that the legislative and regulatory framework in which pension schemes operate is fit for purpose. I have been involved in active discussions with TPR and the DWP on funding issues including in my roles as Chair of the Pensions Board of the IFoA and member of the Main Committee of the ACA.