Contentious Insolvency

Our contentious insolvency team advises debtors, creditors and office holders on the full range of issues that arise from formal insolvency applications and procedures. This may mean defending applications for compulsory liquidation, challenging decisions made by office holders, or pursuing asset recovery claims on behalf of office holders. The team operates across borders and has a depth of experience in dealing with conflicts between insolvency processes and dispute resolution procedures such as litigation, arbitration and adjudication.

Our experience includes advising:

• Landlords of the Caffe Nero chain in their challenge to the Caffe Nero company voluntary arrangement which was approved during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic.
• Bankruptcy trustees appointed in Russia and England, in concurrent bankruptcy proceedings in respect of Russian individual charged with fraud and embezzlement, involving multi-hundred million pound claim.
• An international industrial conglomerate in successfully resisting the presentation of a winding up petition in respect of a debt in the amount of £1.2 billion.
• A trade finance lender in the international wind-down of a global commodity trading business affected by a USD billion fraud on its lenders and other creditors, involving proceedings across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
• A high net worth individual in the administration and subsequent liquidation of a fraudulent adviser who had defrauded our client and several other high net worth individuals of substantial sums of money.
• An international infrastructure business in the cross-border insolvency of one of its suppliers of critical infrastructure.
• The liquidator of a PFI project company in pursuing a claim for compensation on termination following insolvency.
• Directors of an international construction company on claims asserted by liquidators for breach of fiduciary duty, misfeasance and false accounting.
• A trustee in bankruptcy in administering Individual Voluntary Arrangements entered into by high profile individuals in the entertainment and sports industries.
• State liquidator of failed banks in a former CIS country in claims against third parties.
• A New York based broker/dealer in US Treasury Bond claim against asset management company in administration.