As a market leader in complex litigation involving allegations of wrongdoing, our team have broad experience both bringing and defending some of the most valuable insolvency claims to appear before the English Courts, including:
- Claims against directors and other management figures involving allegations of breach of duty
- Claims brought against parties alleged to have received company assets, in which officeholders seek the return of those assets
- Claims under the Insolvency Act 1986, including claims alleging Fraudulent Trading (s.213), Wrongful Trading (s.214) Transactions at Undervalue (ss.238; 339), Preferences (ss.239; 340) and Transactions Defrauding Creditors (s.423)
Our team also has extensive experience in advising directors and other parties in relations to investigations pursued by insolvency officeholders
Notable Experience
- Advising the directors of Windward Prospects in claims brought by administrators which allege breaches of duty, transactions at undervalue and preferences, which are alleged to be valued at c.£180 million
- Advising one of the world's largest private equity funds in the successful defence at trial of a c.£1 billion claim under s.423 of the Insolvency Act (Transactions Defrauding Creditors) brought by the liquidators of a Greek telecom company
- Advising the liquidators of a company implicated in a complex VAT fraud in bringing breach of duty and Insolvency Act claims of c.£60 million against the company's director and his connected parties
- Advising the directors of offshore corporate services companies implicted in an alleged $1 billion fraud through which funds were passed through companies in various jurisdictions, in relation to Fraudulent Trading claims brought by liquidators which were said to be valued at c.$1 billion
- Advising a UAE-based bank in a multi-jurisdiction asset-tracing and enforcement mandate, which involved bringing High Court claims under s.423 of the Insolvency Act (Transactions Defrauding Creditors), including a successful appeal to the Supreme Court (which is now the leading authority on that section)
- Advising directors of multiple companies which historically utilised Employee Benefit Trusts, in successfully defending claims in which liquidators alleged that they had breached their duties by paying funds into those trusts before the companies entered insolvency