Temple Bright recruits former Clifford Chance pensions head
01/05/2025
Temple Bright has expanded its London team with the hire of leading pensions specialist, Hywel Robinson. Hywel was previously a partner and head of pensions at Clifford Chance.
Hywel has over 30 years’ experience advising on all aspects of pensions legal work, including employer and trustee advisory work, the impact of transactions and restructuring, funding, Pensions Regulator involvement, investment (including investment management, funds, insurance and derivatives), litigation, disputes and tax. He has particular expertise in handling complex or difficult pension negotiations between corporates and trustees.
Hywel joined Clifford Chance in 1994, becoming a partner in 2004 and serving as the firm’s head of pensions from 2011 to 2025. He has been consistently ranked in directories as a leading individual in pensions law over many years and is a former chair of the Association of Pension Lawyers.
Hywel becomes the fourth pensions partner at Temple Bright, joining the existing team of Rosalind Connor, Deborah Latimer and Comron Rowe.
Hywel said: “I am delighted to be joining Temple Bright. The firm has a very highly regarded pensions team and a compelling bench of partners across all the main commercial practice areas.
“The founders have made a conscious decision to make Temple Bright the non-traditional firm of choice for senior City lawyers, like me, who wish to continue running and developing their practice through a streamlined model.
“I was particularly drawn to the firm’s emphasis on selectivity in recruitment, working in teams, and maintaining a distinctive style of advising. These features set Temple Bright apart among the many new model firms appearing in recent decades.
“For a practitioner moving on from a leading City firm, it’s vital to be able to offer something distinctive in its place – a different type of firm, but with the culture and skills to take on complex work and do it well.”
Tim Summers, co-founder of Temple Bright, said: “We are delighted to welcome Hywel Robinson, a high profile pensions lawyer who has held a key position in a Magic Circle firm. It’s obviously a coup for any smaller firm to recruit a lawyer of this stature, and we foresee Hywel being a huge asset for Temple Bright.”
Launched in 2010, Temple Bright is a firm of over 75 partners from a City and leading regional firm background, with offices in London EC2 and Bristol. It operates a non-traditional structure that it calls a “chambers practice,” making a comparison with barristers in chambers. Temple Bright makes four promises to clients – City quality; reasonable fees; senior lawyers; responsiveness – which the firm keeps through its streamlined model.
Last year the firm recruited leading pensions specialist Rosalind Connor, also a former chair of the Association of Pension Lawyers, who was a partner at Jones Day and Taylor Wessing and then managing partner at Arc Pensions Law. Since the start of this year, the firm has added corporate partner Nick Cheshire from Ashurst, and commercial, IP and technology partner Ben Chivers from Travers Smith.
Tim Summers said: “We think Temple Bright offers both clients and lawyers something unique. We are a cohesive group of partners who work in a distinctive style, without delegation to juniors, with autonomy and flexibility.
“Instead of prioritising firm growth, like many new model firms, we have maintained a single-minded dedication to quality. We want to be a viable alternative to the traditional City firm, for clients at every stage of growth.
“The addition of Hywel, and the growing group of former City partners in our London office, is a vindication of our approach.”
