Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) has appointed James Borshell as a partner in the firm's London office, joining WBD's national pensions team.
James joins from Dentons and has 15 years' experience advising on pensions and broader employee benefit matters. In particular, he has a strong track record advising Trustee and Company clients on the operation of their pension schemes and on the set up and operation of share and other benefit schemes for companies looking to incentivise staff. James has advised on a variety of complex pensions scheme issues including closing and winding up schemes, corporate transactional issues, buy outs, scheme amendments and setting up new benefit structures in both the private and public sectors.
Before moving into the private sector, James spent five years at the Department for Work and Pensions drafting pensions legislation.
Martin Poore, who heads the UK pensions law team at WBD commented:
"We're pleased to welcome James to the firm and to our fast-growing London practice. We have one of the largest specialist pensions law teams in the country and are focused on recruiting the right people to provide added value to our clients."
James added:
"I am really looking forward to working with the team here in the UK and with our US colleagues. WBD has an impressive client portfolio across a number of key sectors which provides a real opportunity to assist the firm's clients with innovative ways to incentivise their workforce."
James' appointment follows a wider recruitment drive particularly in WBD's London office which has seen nine new partners join in the past five months. The lateral hires have joined the real estate (Nicola Giddens) insurance (Tim Barr, Simon Beckwith and Mark Ratcliff), white collar crime (Audrey Koh), immigration (Andrew Tingley), banking (Matthew Williams), finance (Jonny Williams) and data protection (Mark Gleeson) teams. The firm also strengthened its tax and private wealth practice in London with Bob Savic joining as a senior consultant.
Ranking in the UK's top 20 law firms, WBD provides legal expertise in eleven key sectors from across eight offices in the UK, including London, and 19 offices in the US. The firm's key sectors include Financial Institutions; Real Estate; Insurance; Energy & Natural Resources; Healthcare; Manufacturing; Retail & Consumer; Transport, Logistics & Infrastructure; Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology & Life Sciences; Technology and Private Wealth.