Insolvency


"Serle Court maintains its reputation as a strong player in the restructuring and insolvency market"
Chambers and Partners

Insolvency

Serle Court is recognised as one of the leading sets for restructuring and insolvency work and has consistently been included in both Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 since the directories commenced publication.Chambers undertakes work in all areas of restructuring and insolvency from large corporate insolvencies to personal bankruptcy cases. Insolvency litigation involving allegations of fraud is a key area of strength, drawing on chambers’ reputation in civil fraud matters, our barristers have experience appearing before both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

Our barristers undertake work in all areas of restructuring and insolvency from large corporate insolvencies to personal bankruptcy cases. Insolvency litigation involving allegations of fraud is a key area of strength, drawing on chambers’ reputation in civil fraud matters, our barristers have experience appearing before both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

We have considerable experience in dealing with the cross-border insolvencies and many members have been involved in insolvencies in the Caribbean, the British Overseas Territories, the Crown Dependencies and those Asian countries which have borrowed heavily from English law, even where there is no connection with England and Wales.

Our barristers are frequently involved in directors’ disqualification proceedings acting both for the Government and the individual directors.

Daniel Lightman KC is the co-author of three chapters of Lightman and Moss on The Law of Administrators and Receivers of Companies (Sweet & Maxwell, 6th Ed, 2017).

Serle Court was awarded 'Insolvency Set of the Year' at The Legal 500 UK Awards 2020.

Serle Court is proud to be the only Barristers chambers to contribute in Capital Markets Intelligence International Insolvency & Restructuring Report 2023/24. Download Daniel Lightman KC and Charlotte Beynon's article here

Our barristers have been involved in most of the large insolvencies since the advent of the Insolvency Act 1986, including Lehman, BCCI and BHS. This has involved advising on and acting in both non-contentious and contentious aspects of insolvency work from the inception of the insolvency to its end.

Philip Marshall KC often acts in high-profile and high-value cases, including acting for Dr Vijay Mallya in defending bankruptcy proceedings for claim of over £1 billion arising out of banking litigation in India.

Daniel Lightman KC is in demand for winding up petitions and novel insolvency issues, and is acting in Serle Court’s top insolvency cases, including:

  • obtaining the first-ever order for the just and equitable winding up of a publicly listed company on the ground of loss of substratum (purpose)
  • representing the sole shareholder of a collapsed energy company in its challenge of the joint administrators’ fees (with Emma Hargreaves).

Daniel Lightman KC, Charlotte Beynon and Tim Benham-Mirando represent Mr Chandler, a former director of the BHS group of companies, in the ongoing BHS litigation. The trial of the claims brought by BHS’ liquidators for alleged wrongful trading and misfeasance is due to start in November 2023 and is one of The Lawyer’s Top 20 Cases of 2023.

Members are also working on several of the energy insolvencies going through the courts, in particular Lance Ashworth KC and Matthew Morrison who have developed a reputation for work in this area.  They represented two of the applicants in Croxen v Gas and Electric Markets Authority [2022] EWHC 2826 (Ch), in which Zacaroli J determined a number of market-wide issues arising from the failure of energy supply companies.

Ruth Jordan has acted in numerous large disqualification cases, and is often instructed by the Crown in relation to tax, insolvency and charities work.

Jennifer Meech acts for a number of sub-postmasters who were caught up in the British Post Office Scandal. They were improperly convicted of various crimes based on erroneous information provided by a faulty IT system before having their convictions quashed in 2021.  Jennifer has advised a number of individuals on the interaction between their insolvencies and their claims for malicious prosecution against the Post Office.  


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News & Events

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    SerleShare is an up-to-date digital marketing initiative that came to life in July 2020 when our Business Development and... Read More

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    Wilson Leung writes for ThoughtLeaders4 FIRE Magazine Issue 16 on interim receivers

    In the latest issue of ThoughtLeaders4 FIRE Magazine, Wilson Leung looks at the court’s power to appoint an... Read More

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