The Pension Protection Fund has named the law firms which will provide it with specialist advice for at least the next three years.

The PPF has restructured its legal panels, shrinking the number of firms to 23. Clyde & Co, Dentons, and Wragge & Co. have been appointed as the ‘core panel’.

Addleshaw Goddard, Berwin Leighton Paisner, Bond Dickinson, Mayer Brown, Moon Beever, Nabarro, Osborne Clarke, Pitmans, Squire Sanders, and Stephenson Harwood form the insolvency and corporate panel, alongside the three core panel firms.

The specialist and reserve panel comprises Addleshaw Goddard, Ashurst, Berwin Leighton Paisner, Bevan Brittan, Bond Dickinson, Burness Paull, Dundas & Wilson, Field Fisher Waterhouse, Herbert Smith Freehills, Hogan Lovells, Jones Day, Kingsley Napley, Mayer Brown, Nabarro, Osborne Clarke, Sacker & Partners, Squire Sanders, and Stephenson Harwood.

PPF director of strategy and legal affairs David Taylor said legal issues pervade everything the fund does, so it was important to get the right firms to provide the right advice and support.

“The PPF now protects hundreds of thousands of pension scheme members, is increasingly involved in complex restructuring deals and litigation and manages an expanding asset portfolio which currently stands at around £15bn,” Taylor said. “I look forward to working with all our panel firms on the many interesting and novel issues that continue to arise on a daily basis.”

The PPF said the main criteria for choosing the successful firms, aside from technical expertise, were quality of service and value for money. The panel commenced on 1 October and the contracts will run for three years, with the potential to be extended by a further two years.

Appointing the panel follows the naming of the four-firm trustee panel in August. An actuarial panel was named two years ago, followed by a specialist administration services panel last August. The fund is in the process of selecting an auditors panel.

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