Our lawyers have the expertise and experience to provide you with creative, personalised solutions in a clear and understandable way.
Discover a wealth of invaluable guidance in the form of guides and brochures written by our expert lawyers.
Discover the latest insights and thought leadership from our team of legal experts.
The retail world has clearly been significantly impacted, with CVAs becoming increasingly prevalent. Dealing with circumstances related to financial distress can be extremely difficult from a business and personal perspective be you a debtor or a creditor.
Whether you are looking to restructure your current operations or seeking guidance on insolvency, you need to work closely with specialist insolvency lawyers to devise an innovative strategy which will protect your interests and maximise the economic outcome of your situation. Whilst we cannot predict or control outside events, our insolvency lawyers can help you plan how best to protect your businesses and any personal liability you could face.
Our Corporate Recovery & Restructuring lawyers work with financial institutions, insolvency funders, private equity houses and turnaround professionals, insolvency practitioners and businesses and individuals across a range of different industries. We have substantial experience working with Boards to guide them through difficult trading periods. We work with cash flows to deal with creditors in the best way for all, including negotiation and drafting appropriate standstills. We also work for officeholders and litigation funders, always striving to maximise returns for creditors.
We fully integrate with your team, building up a thorough understanding of your business and your commercial position. We will then guide you through the potential opportunities and risks and work collaboratively with you to develop a pragmatic and commercially focused strategy tailored to your business. Our team is constantly striving to find new and more effective solutions for our clients and is committed to delivering the best possible results.
+44 20 7470 4429+44 7943 503198robin.henry@collyerbristow.com
We acted on a £4.5m claim under the Insolvency Act 1986 against the director of a company in liquidation. The claim was successfully resolved through ADR.
We acted on a claim against directors for the improper use of tax-avoidance schemes.
We advised a foreign company facing claims for a share of its recovery in a multi-million international arbitration.
We acted on a substantial debt-recovery claim against a Swiss company, including dealing with service out of the jurisdiction and issues arising under Swiss law.
We acted on a wrongful trading claim seeking damages in excess of £6m.
We advised family members of the director of an offshore company in liquidation on dealing with enquiries from the liquidator. This involved dealing with cross-border insolvency issues and responding to threats made to examine the family members in court.
We acted on a claim for fraudulent trading, dishonest assistance, knowing receipt, unjust enrichment and breach of director’s duty valued at £12m. This included obtain freezing injunctions against two of the defendants and successfully opposing an application by one of them to set aside the freezing injunction.
We advised on the CVA (company voluntary arrangement) of a high-profile chain providing medical services. This included advising on voting, the conduct of a highly contentious creditors’ meeting, complex creditor claims and a variation of the CVA’s terms.
We advised on the administration of a long-established special needs school. This involved the sale of a valuable property and advice to the school’s trustees regarding the correct application of the surplus proceeds.
We advised a large commercial landlord on its rights and options after it was served with House of Fraser’s CVA proposal. House of Fraser’s CVA, which was approved by creditors in June 2018, included plans to close 31 of its 59 UK and Ireland stores, and reduce rent on stores remaining open. The landlords argued that they were being unfairly prejudiced by the CVA process and challenged its approval before later reaching a settlement with the company.
We support our clients with individually tailored legal advice, in areas such as:
We have wide and varied experience of all aspects of turnaround and restructuring, including over many financial crises. This encompasses acting for creditor groups, restructuring practitioners or working with the board through the process, providing them with the protection and comfort they need through the difficult times and planning the exit strategy including CVAs and Schemes of Arrangement to avoid overtrading.
We regularly act for administrators, advise directors on putting their company into administration and assist creditors of companies which have gone into administration, particularly landlords.
Our insolvency lawyers advise companies on the accelerated M&A process and administrators on the many issues trading the business of insolvent companies and on selling the businesses whether via a pre-pack or following a period of extensive marketing through the trading period.
As well as selling the businesses and assets of insolvent companies for administrators we act for entrepreneurs and investors (ranging from high net worth individuals looking to diversify their investments to venture capital and private equity firms) in buying businesses from administrators and liquidators.
Our insolvency lawyers regularly advise liquidators, directors, shareholders and creditors on all issues relating to compulsory and voluntary liquidations, including solvent liquidations (MVLs).
We regularly act on Insolvency Act and ‘breach of duty’ claims by liquidators and administrators; we also advise directors threatened with such claims.
Personal bankruptcy often involves complex and contentious legal issues, especially when it concerns international debtors, creditors, lenders, assets and financial structures. Our partner-led team has the expertise to help you tackle these challenges. We advise the full range of stakeholders including trustees in bankruptcy, debtors and their families, creditors and anyone involved with or exposed to the personal insolvency process.
We have considerable experience of advising directors threatened with disqualification proceedings. We regularly defend such proceedings, negotiate the terms of disqualification undertakings and act on applications for permission to be a director while disqualified.
Our insolvency lawyers regularly act in shareholder disputes and often advise minority shareholders unhappy with the way a company is being run on their rights and remedies. We are very experienced in these disputes which can be as bitter as a divorce, particularly with family companies (often following a bereavement or arising during succession planning) and between former friends who went into business together and we have the patience and the insights and experience to steer the parties to a successful outcome, most frequently through mediation.
Having worked in Insolvency and restructuring for so long (our Team’s experience goes back to 1980) we are expert and analysing often complex security and priority arrangements affecting companies and members of the security group.
This is of particular importance for boards, investors and funders considering any form of restructuring, and to administrators and liquidators who need to know how to deal with assets in their control which may be subject to fixed or floating charges.
An overview of the work of our Corporate recovery, restructuring & insolvency team, working with Boards to guide businesses through difficult trading periods.
Corporate recovery, restructuring & insolvency insights
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Corporate recovery, restructuring & insolvency key contacts
Partner - Head of Dispute Resolution Services
Talk to Robin about Banking & financial disputes, Commercial disputes, Corporate recovery, restructuring & insolvency, Financial regulatory and Personal insolvency
Corporate recovery, restructuring & insolvency
In recent times we have seen unprecedented disruption to businesses, with many still struggling with the effects of the disruption and changes to the way we live and work. This, combined with other economic and sociopolitical factors means that we are entering an uncertain time for our economy. There is mounting financial pressure on businesses as they contend with this uncertainty.
Our lawyers have the expertise and experience to provide you with creative, personalised solutions in a clear and understandable way.
Discover a wealth of invaluable guidance in the form of guides and brochures written by our expert lawyers.
Discover the latest insights and thought leadership from our team of legal experts.
The retail world has clearly been significantly impacted, with CVAs becoming increasingly prevalent. Dealing with circumstances related to financial distress can be extremely difficult from a business and personal perspective be you a debtor or a creditor.
Whether you are looking to restructure your current operations or seeking guidance on insolvency, you need to work closely with specialist insolvency lawyers to devise an innovative strategy which will protect your interests and maximise the economic outcome of your situation. Whilst we cannot predict or control outside events, our insolvency lawyers can help you plan how best to protect your businesses and any personal liability you could face.
Our Corporate Recovery & Restructuring lawyers work with financial institutions, insolvency funders, private equity houses and turnaround professionals, insolvency practitioners and businesses and individuals across a range of different industries. We have substantial experience working with Boards to guide them through difficult trading periods. We work with cash flows to deal with creditors in the best way for all, including negotiation and drafting appropriate standstills. We also work for officeholders and litigation funders, always striving to maximise returns for creditors.
We fully integrate with your team, building up a thorough understanding of your business and your commercial position. We will then guide you through the potential opportunities and risks and work collaboratively with you to develop a pragmatic and commercially focused strategy tailored to your business. Our team is constantly striving to find new and more effective solutions for our clients and is committed to delivering the best possible results.
We acted on a £4.5m claim under the Insolvency Act 1986 against the director of a company in liquidation. The claim was successfully resolved through ADR.
We acted on a claim against directors for the improper use of tax-avoidance schemes.
We advised a foreign company facing claims for a share of its recovery in a multi-million international arbitration.
We acted on a substantial debt-recovery claim against a Swiss company, including dealing with service out of the jurisdiction and issues arising under Swiss law.
We acted on a wrongful trading claim seeking damages in excess of £6m.
We advised family members of the director of an offshore company in liquidation on dealing with enquiries from the liquidator. This involved dealing with cross-border insolvency issues and responding to threats made to examine the family members in court.
We acted on a claim for fraudulent trading, dishonest assistance, knowing receipt, unjust enrichment and breach of director’s duty valued at £12m. This included obtain freezing injunctions against two of the defendants and successfully opposing an application by one of them to set aside the freezing injunction.
We advised on the CVA (company voluntary arrangement) of a high-profile chain providing medical services. This included advising on voting, the conduct of a highly contentious creditors’ meeting, complex creditor claims and a variation of the CVA’s terms.
We advised on the administration of a long-established special needs school. This involved the sale of a valuable property and advice to the school’s trustees regarding the correct application of the surplus proceeds.
We advised a large commercial landlord on its rights and options after it was served with House of Fraser’s CVA proposal. House of Fraser’s CVA, which was approved by creditors in June 2018, included plans to close 31 of its 59 UK and Ireland stores, and reduce rent on stores remaining open. The landlords argued that they were being unfairly prejudiced by the CVA process and challenged its approval before later reaching a settlement with the company.
We have wide and varied experience of all aspects of turnaround and restructuring, including over many financial crises. This encompasses acting for creditor groups, restructuring practitioners or working with the board through the process, providing them with the protection and comfort they need through the difficult times and planning the exit strategy including CVAs and Schemes of Arrangement to avoid overtrading.
We regularly act for administrators, advise directors on putting their company into administration and assist creditors of companies which have gone into administration, particularly landlords.
Our insolvency lawyers advise companies on the accelerated M&A process and administrators on the many issues trading the business of insolvent companies and on selling the businesses whether via a pre-pack or following a period of extensive marketing through the trading period.
As well as selling the businesses and assets of insolvent companies for administrators we act for entrepreneurs and investors (ranging from high net worth individuals looking to diversify their investments to venture capital and private equity firms) in buying businesses from administrators and liquidators.
Our insolvency lawyers regularly advise liquidators, directors, shareholders and creditors on all issues relating to compulsory and voluntary liquidations, including solvent liquidations (MVLs).
We regularly act on Insolvency Act and ‘breach of duty’ claims by liquidators and administrators; we also advise directors threatened with such claims.
Personal bankruptcy often involves complex and contentious legal issues, especially when it concerns international debtors, creditors, lenders, assets and financial structures. Our partner-led team has the expertise to help you tackle these challenges. We advise the full range of stakeholders including trustees in bankruptcy, debtors and their families, creditors and anyone involved with or exposed to the personal insolvency process.
We have considerable experience of advising directors threatened with disqualification proceedings. We regularly defend such proceedings, negotiate the terms of disqualification undertakings and act on applications for permission to be a director while disqualified.
Our insolvency lawyers regularly act in shareholder disputes and often advise minority shareholders unhappy with the way a company is being run on their rights and remedies. We are very experienced in these disputes which can be as bitter as a divorce, particularly with family companies (often following a bereavement or arising during succession planning) and between former friends who went into business together and we have the patience and the insights and experience to steer the parties to a successful outcome, most frequently through mediation.
Having worked in Insolvency and restructuring for so long (our Team’s experience goes back to 1980) we are expert and analysing often complex security and priority arrangements affecting companies and members of the security group.
This is of particular importance for boards, investors and funders considering any form of restructuring, and to administrators and liquidators who need to know how to deal with assets in their control which may be subject to fixed or floating charges.
Corporate recovery, restructuring & insolvency insights
Podcasts
Listen now
Podcasts
Listen now
Videos
Watch now
Shorter Reads
Read more
Longer Reads
Read more
Videos
Watch now
Shorter Reads
Read more
Podcasts
Listen now
Shorter Reads
Read more
Longer Reads
Read more
Podcasts
Listen now
Longer Reads
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