Outer Temple Chambers features in The Lawyers Top 10 Appeals of 2024

We are delighted to share that four of our pensions law specialists, Nicolas Stallworthy KC, Andrew Short KC, Philip Stear, and Patrick Tomison, feature in The Lawyer’s Top 10 Appeals of 2024.

At the beginning of each year, The Lawyer releases the ‘Top 10 Appeals of 2024’ highlighting the most influential and intriguing, high-profile cases that are set to return to the courtroom over the next 12 months. The cases listed reflect some of the key issues facing the legal industry and world today. Four of our members are instructed on the case of Virgin Media v NTL Pension Trustees II and others, which has been highlighted by The Lawyer as one of the ‘Top 10 Appeals of 2024’.

Nicolas Stallworthy KC and Philip Stear (instructed for the appellant, Virgin Media) and Andrew Short KC and Patrick Tomison (instructed for one of the respondents, John Jardine) will appear in the Court of Appeal later on this year (26th June) to re-visit the case.

The case concerns one of the biggest, industry-wide questions concerning the pensions industry over the last decade; namely whether section 37 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993, in conjunction with Regulation 42 of the Contracting-Out Regulations 1996, invalidated amendments made without an actuary’s confirmation in writing.

In June 2023, the High Court issued a judgment that affects up to 5,000 ‘final salary’ pension schemes across the UK which had contracted out from the state pension scheme between 1997 and 2013. The decision, against Virgin Media, had enormous consequences for such schemes as it held that all changes to future accrual which were made without actuarial confirmation in writing were void.

The industry-wide value of the issue is estimated to be potentially many hundreds of millions of pounds.  

The legal line-up

For the appellant, Nicolas Stallworthy KC and Philip Stear, instructed by Ian Gordon of Gowling WLG on behalf of Virgin Media.

For the respondent, Andrew Short KC and Patrick Tomison, instructed by Victoria Leigh of Squire Patton Boggs on behalf of the representative beneficiary, John Jardine.

Find out more

To find out more about our members listed above, please contact Matt Sale on +44 (0)20 7427 4910, or Nick Levett on +44 (0)20 7427 4908 for more information.

News 12 Feb, 2024