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Pensions

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Outer Temple Chambers
Wilberforce Chambers
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Radcliffe Chambers

Leading Silks

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Michael Furness KC – Wilberforce Chambers ‘Michael is incredibly thorough and reliable. His opinions are models of clarity.’
Brian Green KC – Wilberforce Chambers ‘Brian is a combination of teacher and showman. He is incredibly good and persuasive at explaining to different audiences in the right way for the audience – be they clients, judges, or juniors – what the issue is and why it should be analysed in the way he is proposing.’
Paul Newman KC – Wilberforce Chambers ‘Pragmatic, focussed, commercial – he cuts to the point.’
Keith Rowley KC – Radcliffe Chambers 'Keith is an éminence grise in the pensions world. His grasp of the detail and the law in this area is of the highest standard. Clients know they are in expert and safe hands with Keith.'  
Andrew Short KC – Outer Temple Chambers ‘Andrew is the best in the market – an absolute star. Very down to earth. He understands his clients and finds solutions.’  
Andrew Spink KC – Outer Temple Chambers 'Andrew combines vast experience with a commercial and pragmatic approach to the issues before him. Clients, instructing solicitors, and judges alike welcome his clear and no-nonsense approach to complex pensions matters. He is so engaging - it's almost like having a fire-side chat.'
Nicolas Stallworthy KC – Outer Temple Chambers ‘Detailed technical knowledge, has great communication skills with clients, and always pays attention to detail. Strong advocacy skills in both the High Court and Court of Appeal.’  
Michael Tennet KC – Wilberforce Chambers ‘He is good at leading juniors and is a superior strategist. He is no nonsense in his advocacy and reactive to questions from the Judges.’
2
Keith Bryant KC – Outer Temple Chambers ‘Keith gets to grip with the issues quickly and is always well-prepared. He is willing to take clients through his advice and tactics in a measured and user-friendly manner, and his advocacy style is calm and assured.’
Jonathan Hilliard KC – Wilberforce Chambers ‘Jonathan is a class act with excellent client manner, and is a very thorough preparer. He also has very good judgement.’
Richard Hitchcock KC – Outer Temple Chambers ‘Richard is super intelligent, gives clear advice and is client friendly.’
Fenner Moeran KC – Wilberforce Chambers ‘Good advocacy and strong technical knowledge.’
Andrew Mold KC – Wilberforce Chambers
3
Katherine Apps KC – 39 Essex Chambers ‘Katherine is unique in her combination of being razor sharp and interpersonally exceptional. She really carries the team through complex and hard-fought litigation, and the extent of her expertise is unparalleled – she has every detail at her fingertips.’
Claire Darwin KC – Matrix Chambers 'Claire is a powerful advocate and totally committed to whatever case she is instructed in. She is strong and effective in court.'
David Grant KC – Outer Temple Chambers
Ben Hubble KC –4 New Square
Farhaz Khan KC – 3 Verulam Buildings
Christopher Tidmarsh KC – 5 Stone Buildings ‘Chris is an exceptional leading counsel without question – he adeptly arrives at the fundamental legal issues for clients with an excellent mix of the highest level of legal skills and commercial application.'  

2025 Silks

Thomas Robinson KC – Wilberforce Chambers ‘He is an expert in the overlap between pensions and insolvency. Very personable and efficient, and doesn’t make anything seem difficult.’
Fraser Campbell KC  – Blackstone Chambers

Leading Juniors

1
Naomi Ling – Outer Temple Chambers
Saul Margo – Outer Temple Chambers ‘Saul is a pleasure to work with. He takes time to understand his clients and is willing to go into the details, yet extremely user-friendly and is able to take the most difficult of concepts and present it in straightforward manners that are easy to follow and understand.’
Edward Sawyer – Wilberforce Chambers ‘With enormous experience of all matters related to pensions, Edward combines technical excellence with fantastic service and unrivalled intellectual capabilities. This makes him an absolute go-to as the premier senior junior at the pensions Bar.’
Lydia Seymour  – Outer Temple Chambers 'Lydia is just brilliant. She is calm and thoughtful, always well-prepared and very reassuring to clients. She is an absolute pleasure to work with.'
2
Sebastian Allen – Wilberforce Chambers ‘Sebastian is really personable, makes the law fun, and never seems deterred or concerned by any obstacle.'
Nicholas Hill – Outer Temple Chambers ‘Hugely knowledgeable, forensic, practically focussed, and approachable.'
James McCreath – Wilberforce Chambers ‘James is an excellent advocate, with a considered, measured approach which helps lead the judge through the relevant points. He is clear and concise, and able to adapt quickly on his feet to the questions raised by the judge.’
Elizabeth Ovey –Radcliffe Chambers ‘Excellent knowledge and technical expertise combined with a painstaking step-by-step analysis that opens up new opportunities for clients.’
Jennifer Seaman – Wilberforce Chambers 'Jenny is great to work with – decisive and pragmatic and knows the law well. She provides clear advice on complex issues and is persuasive in her arguments.' 
3
Jonathan Chew –Wilberforce Chambers 'Friendly, sharp, works well in a team, and focuses on the key issues.'
Henry Day – Radcliffe Chambers ‘Henry has excellent technical knowledge of pensions – he is very clever, with a keen eye for detail – and is lovely to work with and a real team player.’
Wendy Mathers – Radcliffe Chambers 'Wendy has a prodigious memory (bordering on photographic) and a considerable grasp of detail. She is very impressive in conference with clients, putting them at ease and displaying a strong command of the papers and the issues.'
Saaman Pourghadiri – 3 Verulam Buildings ‘Intellectually very strong, whilst keeping a keen eye on what really matters for clients. He is an excellent junior for the most technically demanding cases, with a good courtroom manner and a very strong sense of when to press a point and when to move on.’
Philip Stear – Outer Temple Chambers
Michael Uberoi – XXIV Old Buildings ‘Michael is brilliant at getting on with others and has an empathy and understanding of the position of other parties.’
James Walmsley –Wilberforce Chambers 'James is able to take in a huge amount of information and get to the heart of an issue, he has an eye for detail and can foresee potential areas of weakness in order to deal with them at an early stage.'
4
Stephen Butler  – Outer Temple Chambers
Michael Ashdown –Wilberforce Chambers
Chloe Bell – 3 Verulam Buildings
Victoria Brown – Outer Temple Chambers ‘Victoria has a strong pensions ability –  she is increasingly instructed in part 8 claims by herself and acts as junior in some of the biggest cases.'
Nigel Burroughs – 4 New Square 'He has great attention to detail and a wide-ranging knowledge of commercial pensions, and is able to sift through a lot of detail to get to the kernel of the matter. Not one to pull a gun from a holster too readily.'
Elizabeth Grace  – Outer Temple Chambers ‘Beth is approachable, intelligent, very responsive and adopts pragmatic solutions to the tricky issues raised by pensions litigation cases.'
Patrick Halliday  – 11KBW
Joseph Steadman – Wilberforce Chambers ‘Joe is fantastic to work with – he’s down to earth, responsive and authoritative, and understands exactly what the underlying client is looking for in his advice. The end product is both high quality and accessible.’
Patrick Tomison  – Outer Temple Chambers

Rising Stars

Joshua Cainer – Outer Temple Chambers ‘Joshua is approachable and thorough. He explains complex issues in a straightforward way and gives practical advice.’

Pensions in London Bar

Outer Temple Chambers


Seen by clients as ‘leaders in pensions claims’, Outer Temple Chambers handles a broad range of pensions work, synchronising with the set’s reputation for employment work. The set had four members – Philip Stear, Patrick Tomison, Nicolas Stallworthy KC, and Andrew Short KC – involved in one of the largest pensions cases of late, Virgin Media Ltd v NTL Pension Trustees II Ltd. Dealing with the wider question of if section 37 of the Pension Schemes Act of 1993 invalidated amendments made without an actuary’s certificate. This year, three of the six counsel involved in the ‘massive Part 8 action’ Verity Trustees Ltd v Wood & Save the Children Fund, Re: The Pensions Trust are from Outer Temple: Nicolas Stallworthy KC, Victoria Brown, and Andrew Spink KC. The case, proceedings for a multi-employer scheme with nearly 3,000 employees and £13bn in assets, is the longest submissions-only trial in the area.

Referenzen

The clerks are attentive and always on hand to offer suggestions for Counsel. Matt Sale is excellent.

The clerking for pensions is led by Matt Sale, in parallel with Nicholas Levett and Lexie Johnson – they are quick, responsive and reasonable and entirely approachable and collaborative. They are the easiest of clerks to deal with.

Outer Temple is a pensions powerhouse. All the barristers in the pensions team are approachable and lovely to work with.

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Wilberforce Chambers


Wilberforce Chambers is a go-to name for many City firms and beyond in occupational pensions work, dealing with some of the largest and highest-value pensions cases. Notable cases include four of the set’s barristers (Brian Green KC, Michael Tennet KC, Edward Sawyer, Joseph Steadman) working on the widely publicised BBC pension scheme case – BBC v BBC Pensions Trustee – concerning the ability to modify the broadcasting service’s pension scheme. The set's caseload also includes Tennet KC and Fenner Moeran KC appearing in Brass Trustees Ltd v Goldstone, the leading case on how pension scheme trustees should take the Pension Protection Fund into account when determining how to act – a case that has now re-emerged after the company failed to uphold its compromise, and on which Moeran is representing Brass Trustees Ltd in new insolvency proceedings.

Referenzen

The clerks are extremely savvy and know all the personnel at the Court, which is helpful on things such as listing. They’re top of the game, effective and professional. From the most senior to the most junior, they impress. 

The clerks are particularly clever, understand the market, and the clients‘ expectations. Andrew Barnes, Fraser Geddes and Stewart Cameron are extremely knowledgeable.

Wilberforce has the strongest pensions law expertise of any set. 

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Radcliffe Chambers


Radcliffe Chambers, with a ‘strong pensions and broader Chancery offering’, has a well-equipped bench of barristers regularly appearing before the Court of Appeal, the High Court, the Pensions Ombudsman, and the Determinations Panel of the Pensions Regulator. Some of Chambers’ notable work includes R (on the application of the Guinness Partnership Limited) v. Cheshire West and Chester Council, in which Elizabeth Ovey represents the Guinness Partnership on issues concerning the pension’s surpluses and how they come into existence.

Referenzen

The service from Chambers is very good, demonstrating a hunger for the work and to do it at a high level. The clerking team is responsive and ‚can do‘ in their approach.

The clerks are always very personable and helpful and straightforward to deal with. 

Radcliffe Chambers have provided good quality pensions counsel for many years.

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