Boutique law firm Arc Pensions Law has a new managing partner, Rosalind Connor, who succeeds Chris Mullen, its co-founder.
Ms Connor has law in her blood: her grandfather was a lawyer and her father a retired law professor, although they did not influence her choice of profession. After studying a degree in PPE at Oxford in 1992, a first job as a managing consultant working in financial services led her to gravitate to pensions law.
“You spend most of your time helping people, helping people frame the environment in which they make decisions, helping people deal with risks and difficulties,” she says of what attracted her. “Something we forget in our industry is how important pensions are. A decent, civilised society should provide the dignity of a decent income to old people. We are all part of the world that is trying to make sure that happens.”
Frankly, in a free democracy I don’t think you should have a law that is so broadly drafted that it catches vast numbers of perfectly normal, and in fact often very good, things being done. We shouldn’t be relying on the government saying ‘Don’t worry. We won’t use it very often’
After 16 years at Gouldens, now part of Jones Day, Ms Connor moved to Taylor Wessing before joining Arc Pensions Law in 2016. She is a fellow of the Pensions Management Institute and a former chair of the Association of Pension Lawyers. In her spare time, she helps out at a legal advice charity, and says that her love of long walks “has got me through a lot”.
During lockdown, Arc did not need to furlough anyone, given the frenetic pace of change within the industry.
“A few people are now back in the office”, Ms Connor says. The long time-frames involved in pensions mean business is almost back to usual, except for the increasing amounts of work seen primarily in an economic downturn, such as advice around redundancy, distressed businesses, scheme closures and litigation.
Bill a potential disaster for business
Keeping her busy are ramifications from the pension schemes bill and the defined benefit funding code, “each of which on their own would be a radical change”.
“Right now, I would really love the government to take a very long hard look at the pension schemes bill. There were some very damning points made in the House of Lords,” she says of the new criminal offences.
“Frankly, in a free democracy I don’t think you should have a law that is so broadly drafted that it catches vast numbers of perfectly normal, and in fact often very good, things being done. We shouldn’t be relying on the government saying ‘Don’t worry. We won’t use it very often’. I really, really think it will cause so much damage to businesses that have pension schemes. People will be frightened to do business with them because of the risk of going to prison for seven years.”
New DB funding code could imperil sponsors and members
Some of the proposals in the Pensions Regulator’s consultation on a new defined benefit funding code could lead to worse outcomes for scheme sponsors, members and the Pension Protection Fund, according to a new report by LCP.
What of the future for Arc Pensions Law, founded by Anna Rogers just five years ago? “At the outset, we all acknowledged that there was a significant risk it wasn’t going to be much of a success. For all we knew, the pensions industry was far too staid to cope with a new law firm. That hasn’t happened. We are now eight partners and six associates.”
Over the next five years, she hopes the firm will “grow a little more and complete the transition from new, exciting start-up law firm to an established name”.
