Updated:
Arc Pensions Law
Arc Pensions Law is a London specialist law firm founded in 2015 by Anna Rogers to advise solely on occupational pensions.
Arc Pensions Law
Founded by Anna Rogers alongside partners Chris Mullen and Anne-Marie Winton, Arc Pensions Law opened in 2015 as one of the UK's only law firms dedicated exclusively to occupational pensions. The founding team departed from a major international firm specifically to create a structure that could align fees with scheme outcomes, avoiding the cross-subsidization and advisory conflicts that can trouble generalist corporate-law platforms. The firm's launch coincided with a period of intensive regulatory restructuring in UK pensions, including the introduction of collective defined contribution frameworks and the maturation of insurance buy-out markets. Arc's practice covers the full lifecycle of defined benefit and defined contribution scheme management, including liability management exercises, scheme funding negotiations, regulatory interventions from The Pensions Regulator, and complex restructurings involving sponsoring employers. The firm advises on buy-ins and buyouts, master trust authorization, and ongoing governance. It acts for corporate sponsors, independent trustees, and professional pension trustees, with particular depth in the legal architecture required for de-risking transactions that move liabilities off corporate balance sheets. The firm operates from a single office in London and its team structure remains deliberately lean, competing against much larger full-service firms by concentrating partner-level attention on pensions-only mandates. Its work repeatedly intersects with some of the largest risk-transfer deals in the UK market, though deal sizes are not publicly broken out by the firm. The partners are regular contributors to industry consultations and actively shape technical guidance on legislative changes including the shift toward DB superfunds and the evolution of CDC regulation. What structurally differentiates Arc is its founding thesis: that a law firm without corporate, litigation, or real estate departments can be genuinely independent when advising trustee boards that may have adverse interests to the sponsor. That independence model — combined with a partnership that has no non-pensions practice to protect — allows the firm to take positions in regulatory negotiations that larger peers might temper for fear of alienating sponsoring-employer clients.
General information
Firm type
Law Firm
Year founded
2015
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Europe
Country
United Kingdom
City
London
Corporate office
London, United Kingdom
Principals
Anna Rogers
Senior Partner
Chris Mullen
Partner
Anne-Marie Winton
Partner
Frequently asked questions
Why was Arc Pensions Law founded as a standalone pensions firm rather than as a practice group within a larger law firm?
The founding partners left Mayer Brown in 2015 with the explicit view that a pure pensions-only structure eliminates conflicts of interest that arise in full-service firms, where corporate or litigation departments may represent employer clients whose interests diverge from those of pension scheme trustees. The independent model allows the firm to accept adverse instructions against any corporate entity without internal friction.
Does Arc Pensions Law represent corporate sponsors, trustees, or both?
Arc represents the full spectrum of pensions stakeholders. Its client base includes sponsoring employers, independent trustee companies, and professional pension boards. The firm does not maintain ancillary practices that might restrict its ability to take instructions against a given counterparty in separate matters, which is a structural differentiator from generalist firms.
What types of pension-scheme transactions does Arc Pensions Law handle?
The firm advises on the full range of de-risking transactions, including bulk annuity buy-ins and buyouts, longevity swaps, and scheme consolidation vehicles. It also handles liability management exercises, scheme funding negotiations, regulatory clearance applications to The Pensions Regulator, and restructuring mandates where the sponsor employer is in distress.
Is Arc Pensions Law involved in defined contribution or master trust arrangements, or is its work confined to defined benefit schemes?
Arc's mandate extends across both defined benefit and defined contribution schemes. The firm advises on master trust authorization and governance, including compliance with TPR codes of practice. Its practice grew as the UK introduced new collective defined contribution legislation, an area where the firm has contributed to consultation responses and technical guidance.
How does Arc Pensions Law compete with much larger law firms that also have deep pensions practices?
Arc competes on specialization rather than scale. Larger firms offer a multi-practice cross-sell, but partner-level attention on every matter and an absence of internal conflicts allow Arc to win mandates from professional trustee firms and sponsors who value a dedicated team that reports no conflicting business lines. The firm does not seek to match the headcount of a generalist firm.
Does Arc Pensions Law handle contentious pensions litigation?
Arc's core work is advisory and transactional rather than litigation-driven, but it advises on disputes arising from scheme funding, regulatory investigations, and distressed sponsor situations. For cases requiring court advocacy, the firm typically instructs external barristers while retaining strategic control of the client mandate.
Who are the senior legal figures running Arc Pensions Law?
The firm was co-founded by Anna Rogers, who serves as Senior Partner. Chris Mullen and Anne-Marie Winton are partners in the firm, each having spent their prior careers in the pensions practices of major international law firms before the 2015 spinout.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
Need institutional-grade insight on family offices?
Altss delivers:
Prefer a guided tour?
We’ll walk you through: