Pinsent Masons has hired the head of Eversheds Sutherland's financial regulatory consulting practice to build its own offering.
Ian Stott has joined Vario, the firm's legal services delivery arm, in London after a decade at Eversheds, where built the financial regulatory consulting practice into a core group of 15 and held the role of managing director.
Pinsents said a team of specialists would join Vario alongside Stott. The firm did not confirm the number, but described them as "senior practitioners with considerable time in the industry who lead on matters, support clients on complex regulatory challenges and help deliver innovative, commercially focused solutions".
At Vario, Stott's new service line is expected to help clients navigate growing compliance scrutiny and anti-financial crime oversight, with its remit including addressing weaknesses in businesses’ systems and controls, governance frameworks and delivery of remediation and change programmes.
Stott's hire plays into two key areas where Pinsents is aiming to grow, namely work for City clients and alternative legal services.
Jenny Grotepass, head of growth at Vario, said the firm saw "a real opportunity to complement our existing financial services regulatory legal offering; our new consulting and advisory service will provide clients with practical support on embedding compliance throughout their organisations".
She added Stott's hire gave the firm "essentially a full-service offering for financial services organisations facing ever-increasing scrutiny, both from regulators and the customers they serve”.
David Saunders, head of Eversheds' Konexo, commented: “We wish him well in his new role at Vario.”
Stott told GLP that a core element of the practice he built at Eversheds was a resourcing business that allowed it to expand and contract rapidly depending on client need, with more than 500 independent consultants at times working on a project.
"That model works very well, so we're expecting to build something similar at Pinsents," Stott said.
He added: "There's increasing demand from clients to work with like-minded people who have done this before. There are very few people who have the experience to stand up a programme that involves millions of pounds and there's a high level of reputational risk carried by the client as well in who they choose as a partner. Having done it before is a big medal on the lapel and generally gives clients a much higher degree of confidence."
Stott's arrival continues a run of senior hires at Vario, which GLP understands has been an area of high growth for the firm. Grotepass joined last November from A&O Shearman’s Peerpoint as head of growth, while earlier in 2025 James Lewindon joined from Flex Legal to become head of UK and Ireland for flexible services. Ben Williams, former head of KPMG Law’s global legal solutions division, also joined to lead the client consulting team.
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