Pinsent Masons has bolstered its pensions practice with the hire of Taylor Wessing's UK pensions head Carolyn Saunders.

Saunders is set to join the national law firm's London office as a senior partner in the pensions team later this year. She will work closely with Pinsents national head of pensions Alastair Meeks, and will advise employers and trustees on both contentious and non-contentious matters.

The firm's pensions team, which has 17 partners nationally including eight in London, has acted on a number of high profile mandates recently, including advising Cadbury pension scheme trustees in relation to its takeover by Kraft Foods.

Meeks commented: "Carolyn is highly respected by clients and renowned by peers for her ability to nurture talent and develop gifted lawyers into high performing teams. It is our ambition to cement our position as an automatic choice for pension legal services and with Carolyn on board we are well on the way to achieving that."

Taylor Wessing head of employment and pensions Sean Nesbitt will take over Saunders' responsibilities. The firm is also actively recruiting in the practice.

Pinsents has made a number of lateral hires this year, including taking on Halliwells' former national head of real estate Mike Edge to fill the newly-created role of Manchester head of property.

In addition, earlier this year the firm strengthened its banking and finance practice with the January hire of Matthew Morgan from DLA Piper, who took up a newly-created role leading the firm's banking team in Manchester.