Travers Smith pensions head exits for Pinsent Masons

Travers Smith has lost its head of pensions, with senior partner Susie Daykin leaving the City firm to join Pinsent Masons in London.

Daykin, who spent more than 20 years at Travers and became head of pensions in 2024, links up again with former colleague Dan Naylor, who made the same move to Pinsents from Travers in September. The pair are now reunited as Pinsent Masons continues to build out its pensions bench.

Prized pensions hire

Daykin is one of the City’s top pensions lawyers, with particular strength in pensions de-risking and risk transfer work - a booming area of the UK market as corporates look to offload defined benefit liabilities.

Stephen Scholefield, head of pensions and long-term savings at Pinsents, described Daykin’s arrival as a significant strategic hire, saying she and Naylor would play a key role in taking the firm’s pensions offering "to the next level".

Daykin said she was joining at "a really exciting time" for the firm’s pensions team, pointing to the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape and the growing demand for advice on pensions mandates.

The hire comes amid a wider recruitment push across the pensions market. Addleshaw Goddard brought in partner Paul Feathers from Gowling in December, while Simmons added a five-lawyer pensions team from DLA Piper in the autumn, underlining the intensity of competition for senior talent in the space.

Another senior exit for Travers

For Travers, Daykin’s departure marks another high-profile senior exit.

Over the past 12 months, the firm has seen several practice heads leave for rivals, including former tax head Russell Warren, who joined King & Spalding in October, and former leveraged finance head Matthew Ayre, now at Goodwin. Former private equity head Lucie Cawood also left at the end of 2024.