The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has announced the appointment of its new legal panel, with international law firm Gowling WLG among a reshaped panel of six leading firms.
The announcement marks the conclusion of a six month procurement process that has reduced the PPF's legal panel down from 23 firms. Gowling WLG has retained its place on the panel and is also one of three firms that have been selected to provide specialist services to schemes in PPF assessment.
Pensions partner Paul Feathers, said: "We're delighted to have been given the opportunity to continue our relationship with the PPF. Our appointment to both the full service legal panel and the assessment period panel is a positive reflection of the strength and breadth of the firm's capabilities."
PPF Director of Legal, Compliance and Ethics, Dana Grey commented: "We are delighted to announce the successful procurement of our new legal panel. This appointment is the result of a robust procurement exercise and we are confident that this panel will provide the specialist services needed to drive our legal offering at PPF.
"Our new streamlined legal panel will allow us to develop better working relationships with each of the successful firms to not only improve the quality of the service we receive but also to ensure we get the best value for our spend on legal services. It will also enable us to work with a core group of specialists who really understand the PPF and will partner with us to achieve our short and long term commercial objectives."
Joining Gowling WLG on the panel are firms DWF, Herbert Smith Freehills, Hogan Lovells, Mayer Brown and Osborne Clarke. Contracts for the new panel of firms will commence in February 2018.