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Apart from offering expert legal consultancy for local jurisdictions, CMS partners up with you to effectively navigate the complexities of global business and legal environments.

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CMS lawyers can provide future-facing advice for your business across a variety of specialisms and industries, worldwide.

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Global Reach
Global Reach

Apart from offering expert legal consultancy for local jurisdictions, CMS partners up with you to effectively navigate the complexities of global business and legal environments.

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Our award-winning pensions team is experienced in advising trustees, employers, consultants and insurers on all aspects of pensions law. As well as day-to-day advice, we have particular experience advising on benefit redesign, scheme closures and liability reduction. We are industry-leaders in longevity hedging, buy-in, buy-out, asset-backed funding, funds and corporate restructuring. Unlike other pension law practices, we work on litigation, as this enables us to brief clients in full on any potentially contentious issues and provides a balanced approach to our advice. CMS also leads the way on pensions de-risking transactions – in 2022, we advised on over 20 transactions with a combined value of £17.4bn – more than half the total value of all transactions completed that year – acting on 6 of the 8 longevity swap conversions to date, and many large-scale longevity swaps.

We provide schemes of all sizes with clear, pragmatic and proactive advice. Keeping our clients up-to-date is a priority for us and we share our unparalleled insight through a wide range of resources, which focus on what you need to know and, practically, what you need to do.

With more than 75 UK lawyers, we have the largest pension teams of any major UK law firm (and the largest London pensions team in a full-service law firm). We are widely regarded as market-leaders in the pensions industry maintaining our top tier rankings for Pensions and Pensions Litigation in Chambers and Legal 500 for 18 years. 

Industry recognition

  • ‘European Pensions Law Firm of the Year’, European Pensions Awards, 2023 and 2022.
  • ‘Pensions Lawyers of the Year 2021’, Pensions Age Awards.
  • 'Award for Supporting Development', Professional Pensions Rising Star Awards, 2023 and 2020.
  • In 2021 we published CMS’s Pensions Law Handbook (15th edition), a definitive 1,000 page guide to UK pensions law, awarded the APL Wallace Medal for “meritorious work in communicating and explaining legal issues affecting pensions”.
Awards & Recognitions
01
  • Quote
    "From the most senior to the most junior member the pensions team delivers excellent service and quality advice. The size of the team brings with it a breadth of experience and exposure from trainees up that is hard to beat."
    Chambers, 2024
  • Quote
    "CMS understand the sector better than any other firm, come up with cost-effective solutions to problems, and are willing to deploy creative strategies when appropriate. The firm remains at the very top of the profession."
    Legal 500, 2022
  • Quote
    "They really are the standout firm for all things pensions. Their pension lawyers are brilliant and talk my language as well. The breadth and depth of the pensions team means there is very little that they haven’t seen or advised on before, so you always feel as though you are getting an answer based on experience, rather than just a fresh reading of the law."
    Legal 500, 2021
  • Quote
    "They can deal with anything you throw at them. They are responsive, fun to work with and always professional. They are pragmatic and really know what you want to achieve and will try to get you there."-
    Chambers, 2021
  • Quote
    CMS is ‘the best in the market’
    Legal 500, 2020
  • Quote
    "They're the biggest hitter both in terms of litigation and advisory work. They have resources that no one else can contemplate and they do phenomenal work."
    Chambers, 2020

Events

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    United Kingdom
    03 Apr 2025

    CMS Welcome Reception to coincide with the 26th Annual IBA Arbitration Day

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    United Kingdom
    31 Mar 2025

    Skills For Future Facing Teams: Advanced presentation skills

  • United Kingdom
    26 Mar 2025

    CMS Annual Tax Con­fer­ence 2025

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    United Kingdom
    19 Mar 2025

    Building Safety Act Conference

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    United Kingdom
    17 Mar 2025

    Skills For Future Facing Teams: Enhance your influence

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    United Kingdom
    13 Mar 2025

    Spotlight on Sexual Harassment

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    United Kingdom
    11 Mar 2025

    ESG litigation: recent trends and future developments

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    United Kingdom
    26 Feb 2025

    Risk Essentials: Managing Cyber Risk & Fraud

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    United Kingdom
    25 Feb 2025

    CMS ECCTA: Failure to Prevent Fraud

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    United Kingdom
    11 Feb 2025

    Renewables Breakfast Seminar: Energy Storage in Italy

  • Bright orange and green origami 840x420
    United Kingdom
    10 Feb 2025

    Skills For Future Facing Teams: True colours? how to understand and influence others

Local market knowledge. Global outlook

We provide future-facing legal advice to help your organisation thrive. Combining local market knowledge and a global perspective, and with lawyers in locations worldwide, your organisation benefits from the expertise it needs, even across borders.

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