Cash Balance Plan for Partners & Sr. Staff of STB. LLP

Overview

The Cash Balance Plan for Partners and Senior Staff of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP was established in 2011 to provide retirement, death, and disability benefits exclusively for the law firm's partnership and senior employee base. The plan is sponsored by Simpson Thacher itself and is governed by an internal Investment and Pension Committee chaired by partner Barrie B. Covit. Unlike a traditional corporate pension invested predominantly in public equities and fixed income, this plan allocates meaningfully to private alternative investments. The plan's investment strategy spans buyout funds, venture capital from seed through late-stage, distressed debt, and special situations. By design, the plan piggybacks on the firm's institutional proximity to private equity sponsors: Simpson Thacher is among the world's leading fund-formation legal practices. This creates a structural sourcing advantage where the plan sees fund opportunities directly from GPs who rely on the firm for their own vehicle structuring. Geographic focus is inferred from the firm's global private equity practice, concentrated primarily in North America and select European markets. The plan is overseen by a small group of senior partners. Beyond Covit, Elizabeth A. Cooper — the firm's Global Head of Private Equity — serves on the Executive Committee, while Greg Grogan leads the firm's Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits Practice. The plan maintains a discrete Alternative Investment Portfolio based in New York, but the total capitalized value or annual deployment figures are not publicly disclosed. The plan's defining structural differentiator is its legally captive LP base and its embedded informational advantage — it is a pension vehicle for the partners of a law firm that drafts the limited partnership agreements for many of the general partners in which it invests. The governance model relies entirely on internal partners, with no external investment staff or OCIO relationship publicly identified. Succession and fiduciary oversight of the plan are tied directly to the firm's partnership governance structure.