Restructuring & Insolvency

Financial distress is a crisis; and such a situation calls for early strategic advice in order to maximise options for successful turnaround and mitigate risks for the business and its management team personally. Often the situation presents the opportunity for restructuring to bring the business back into liquidity and to right-size it for future growth. However, restructuring options and actions take time so it’s essential that advice is taken as soon as management information or external events first threaten cash flow. The alternative is almost certainly a formal insolvency. Whatever the position, the company and its directors need swift and incisive advice as to the options available to them and how and to whom they should exercise their duties.

Our expert Insolvency and Restructuring lawyers act for a wide range of clients, and draw on the wider expertise of corporate lawyers, sector experts and litigators within the firm. We provide excellent technical and strategic advice in addition to finding creative restructuring and insolvency solutions.

We are experienced in handling restructuring, refinancing, turnaround assignments both in the UK and involving other jurisdictions as well as in all types of formal insolvency and insolvency related matters. We work closely with our clients and other professionals to achieve their identified objectives and protection. Details of the type of work we do and our clients are set out below.

Advisory – advice to boards (director advice and assistance), stakeholders or creditors (secured preferential and unsecured) concerned about financial stress or distress
Restructuring – options advice and execution, rescue and reorganisation and contingency planning
Finance and security (including refinancing, the taking and enforcement of security and priority issues)
Pre-pack and other insolvency sales and purchases (of assets and/or businesses) and bespoke agreements with creditors (standstill agreements and restructuring agreements), landlords (to vary leases, enter into licences or assign leases) and in relation to intellectual property and data.
Formal insolvency process (personal and corporate), restructuring plans and moratoriums and schemes of arrangement as well as ‘time to pay’ agreements with HMRC, agreements and variations to agreements with secured lenders and investors, employee engagement and redundancies and company voluntary arrangements, individual voluntary arrangements, negotiation with creditors and preservation and enforcement of contractual and legal rights and remedies before or after formal insolvency (including reservation of title and liens).
Advice on the bringing and defending of statutory demands and petitions and set aside of demands or staying advertisements of winding up petitions, validation orders and restoration to Register of Companies or rectification applications. Creditor claims and proofs of debt, admission and rejection of proofs and voting and dividend issues and advice.
Disputing debt and damages claims, commercial litigation and shareholder disputes.
Bringing or defending claims brought by office-holders for preferences, transactions at undervalue, unlawful dividends, breach of duty/misfeasance, transactions defrauding creditors, mis-use of prohibited names claims, director loan account claims and the like.
Defending Directors Disqualification Act claims and applications for leave to continue to be involved in the formation, promotion and/or management of a company.
Bringing or defending fraud and asset-tracing claims both in the jurisdiction and in other jurisdictions for the recovery of assets or money (including crypto-assets).