Travers Smith has been appointed as a legal adviser for defined benefit pensions consolidation company Clara-Pensions and its trustees, taking a place alongside Eversheds Sutherland and CMS to act for the company.

Clara was set up by U.S. private equity giant TPG and was financially backed by the firm's credit offshoot TPG Sixth Street Partners with an initial £225 million commitment earlier this year. Travers announced today (August 28) that it had been selected as the conflicts counsel for Clara and its trustees.

It means Travers will advise the company when the other firms – Clara's advisers CMS, or Clara Pensions Trusts' advisers Eversheds – run into conflicts.

Clara founder and chief executive Adam Saron commented in a statement: "With a growing pipeline of potential transactions, there are a number of situations where our existing advisers may be conflicted. Conflicts are managed through preparation and transparency, and Travers Smith [has] demonstrated that [it is] well placed to provide high-quality support to both Clara or our trustees."

Clara is a defined benefit pension scheme consolidator that takes on liabilities from UK companies.

In June, Eversheds took a role alongside Linklaters advising on the largest-ever U.K. corporate pension risk transfer, as Rolls Royce agreed a deal to move £4.6 billion of its U.K. pension fund assets to insurer Legal & General.

In October, Eversheds and Travers Smith advised on insurance firm Legal & General's £2.4bn buyout of the Nortel Networks UK Pension Plan.