Irwin Mitchell, Principal Global Investors, PwC, Sackers, Schroders

Irwin MitchellPenny Cogher has joined the law firm as partner. She joins from Charles Russell Speechly, and has experience advising on compliance, risk management and buy-ins and buyouts. Cogher will be based in London.

Principal Global InvestorsNicolas Woodcock and Sebastien Poulin have joined the fixed income team. Woodcock joins from Friends Life Investment and before then spent five years at Fidelity International as a credit analyst. Poulin joined from Newton Investment Management, where he was a high-yield analyst, and has also worked at Standard & Poor’s and BNP Paribas.

PwCAlison Fleming, Ros Williams, Debbie Cane and Julia Yates have all been promoted. Fleming has been named equity partner, with a focus on financial services, but will continue to lead the consultancy’s Scottish pensions team. Williams, Cane and Yates have all been promoted to director. Williams will continue to work with corporate pension clients in the Midlands, Yates will lead the office’s pensions credit team and Cane will continue working within the asset-backed contributions pension advisory team.

SackersJoanna Smith, Naomi Brown and Emma Martin have all been promoted by the UK law firm. Smith and Brown are now associate directors, while Martin is a senior associate as of next month. Smith specialises in funding agreements and scheme mergers and also advises on defined contribution (DC) trust deeds for new funds set up under auto-enrolment. Brown has worked on a number of cases relating to the Pension Protection Fund and company insolvencies, while Martin was recently seconded to the Pensions Regulator, where she focused on DC matters.

SchrodersClara Yan has been named director of insurance asset liability management. Prior to joining Schroders, Yan spent six years at the investment banking branch of UBS and has also worked at Legal & General. She is qualified as an actuary in Australia and the UK.