Stuart Earle

Practice Areas

Stuart supports sponsoring employers, providers, and trustees in the strategic management of their pensions risk and legal obligations.

He is a Partner on our Pensions team. Stuart works in all areas of pensions law and acts for a wide range of clients — from multinational employers and trustees of multi-billion pound occupational schemes to insurance companies and providers of SIPPs/SSASs. He also advises one of the largest master trusts in the UK.

Stuart regularly advises on issues facing both employers and trustees in respect of scheme liability and risk management, the design and implementation of effective systems of governance, as well as developing and advising on contingent funding structures to support legacy-defined benefit liabilities.

In addition to advising on public sector pension issues, with a focus on the interaction between public and private sectors, Stuart also has specific experience in advising on pensions issues across regulated industries, including the electricity, water and nuclear sectors. This regularly involves advice on complex statutory pension protections, which apply in the context of staff transfers, reorganizations and restructures.

Stuart also regularly engages with government departments to support on the development of pensions policy. This has included involvement with the development of new legislation affecting certain regulated sectors and the master trust industry.

Chambers & Partners ranks Stuart as a Leading Individual in Band 1 and reports that “Stuart's knowledge is excellent and he has the ability to make complex topics understandable.” He is also ranked as a Leading Individual by Legal 500, which has described Stuart as “unassuming and straight-talking” and “a trenchant analyzer of seemingly intractable problems.”

Education