Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Formed in 1962, the Retirement Plan for Non-Legal Employees of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is a non-contributory defined benefit plan covering the firm's support staff. The plan operates from the firm's global headquarters at 425 Lexington Avenue in New York, providing retirement, disability, and death benefits. As a captive pension vehicle inside one of the world's most influential law firms, the plan benefits from the institutional proximity and advisory flow of a legal practice deeply embedded with the largest private equity sponsors. The plan's investment strategy spans buyout, early-stage venture, expansion capital, fund-of-funds commitments, and special situations. While the specific portfolio line items are not publicly enumerated, the firm itself is a primary legal advisor to Blackstone, KKR, Apollo Global Management, and Silver Lake — relationships that anchor an information and access advantage for the small pension fund. The plan maintains a global posture, with the firm's own footprint including offices in London, Hong Kong, and Palo Alto, and its investment committee historically draws on partners with direct transaction exposure across North America, Europe, and Asia. The pension fund held an estimated $52 million in assets as of 2026 (Altss estimate). Simpson Thacher's non-legal professionals operate additional real assets including a corporate art collection housed at 425 Lexington Avenue. The broader firm maintains a philanthropic arm, the Simpson Thacher & Bartlett Foundation, alongside professional network affiliations such as Art UK — where partner Paul Foote serves on the Philanthropy Board — and active memberships in the Institute for Portfolio Alternatives and the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association. What distinguishes this plan is its structural position inside a top-tier legal gatekeeper to private capital. Few pension funds of comparable size sit at the daily intersection of fund formation, regulatory negotiation, and mega-cap deal execution for firms managing hundreds of billions in aggregate. The plan's governance and risk exposure are inseparable from the partnership culture of the law firm itself, creating a closed-loop dynamic where the pension committee can observe how and where its external asset managers deploy capital in real time — a sourcing and diligence posture virtually no other $52M pool can replicate.