Insolvency

Tanfield Chambers’ restructuring and insolvency team has decades of combined experience advising and appearing across the full range of corporate and personal insolvency work. Members are regularly instructed by office-holders, secured and unsecured creditors, lenders, funders, directors, shareholders, debtors and other stakeholders in matters before the Insolvency and Companies Court, the wider Business and Property Courts, and on appeal.

The team’s strength has been substantially augmented by the arrival of former members of 9 Stone Buildings, bringing additional depth in corporate insolvency, banking, civil fraud and asset recovery. That depth sits alongside chambers’ recognised strength in real estate, which makes Tanfield a natural choice for instructing solicitors handling matters at the intersection of insolvency and land, including receiverships, security enforcement, possession and antecedent transaction claims involving real property.

Members contribute regularly to LexisNexis and to leading practitioner texts in the area, and the team includes a deputy ICC judge and editorial contributors to standard restructuring and insolvency works.

Work undertaken

Members are instructed across the full range of contentious and non-contentious insolvency and restructuring work, including:

• Administrations: applications, challenges to administrators’ conduct, applications under paragraph 71 and 74 of Schedule B1, exit strategies and successor appointments.
• Liquidations: compulsory and voluntary winding-up, contested petitions, public interest petitions, stay and rescission applications, and remuneration disputes.
• Bankruptcy: petitions, statutory demands, annulment applications, income payments orders, and the recovery and realisation of the bankrupt’s estate including property assets.
• Antecedent transactions: transactions at an undervalue, preferences, transactions defrauding creditors under s.423 IA 1986, extortionate credit transactions and post-petition dispositions.
• Director and officer claims: wrongful and fraudulent trading, misfeasance, breach of duty and unlawful distributions, including in conjunction with disqualification proceedings.
• CVAs and IVAs: proposals, decision procedures, challenges (unfair prejudice, material irregularity) and revocation applications.
• Schemes of arrangement and Part 26A restructuring plans: convening and sanction hearings, class composition disputes and creditor representation.
• Receiverships: fixed charge, LPA and court-appointed receivers, including possession and sale where real property is involved.
• Cross-border insolvency: recognition under the Cross-Border Insolvency Regulations 2006, COMI disputes and parallel proceedings.
• Insolvency and arbitration: stays, anti-suit considerations and the interaction between insolvency processes and arbitral proceedings.
• Asset tracing and recovery: proprietary and constructive trust claims, freezing and proprietary injunctions, and disclosure orders ancillary to insolvency proceedings.
• Advisory work: strategic and stakeholder advice in distressed scenarios prior to the commencement of formal proceedings.

Sector experience

Members have substantive sector experience in property, construction, financial services, manufacturing, automotive, technology and media insolvencies. This sector knowledge informs both strategy and advocacy in cases where the underlying business, asset class or regulatory environment materially affects the available options.

Recent and notable work

Members have appeared in significant restructuring and insolvency decisions and on appeal, including high-value bankruptcy proceedings in the Court of Appeal, contested restructuring plan applications under Part 26A, and reported decisions on insolvency-related property and trust issues. The team’s case experience extends from short-form ICC list work through to multi-day trials and appellate hearings, and members publish regular commentary on developments in the area.

Insolvency at the intersection with property, private client and commercial work

Tanfield’s wider practice areas frequently engage insolvency questions, and instructing solicitors benefit from a team that can run those issues in-house rather than across counsel teams from different sets. Common crossovers include:

• Property: receiverships, mortgagee remedies, possession against bankrupts and companies in administration, joint-ownership and TOLATA issues where one co-owner is bankrupt.
• Private client: the impact of bankruptcy on family and probate proceedings, including transactions defrauding creditors and trust claims by trustees in bankruptcy.
• Commercial: directors’ duties and shareholder disputes shading into misfeasance and unfair prejudice claims.
• Civil fraud: asset tracing, recovery, and proprietary remedies in conjunction with office-holder claims.

Insolvency: scoping and instruction questions

• Can chambers handle urgent and out-of-hours instructions?

  Insolvency work is frequently time-critical. Chambers’ practice management team is experienced at handling urgent applications including provisional liquidations, freezing orders, validation orders, urgent winding-up and bankruptcy petitions, and injunctions to restrain presentation or advertisement of petitions. Availability is usually confirmed within the working day and out-of-hours cover is available where the matter requires it.

• Who do members typically act for?

  Members are instructed across all sides of insolvency disputes, including by administrators, liquidators, trustees in bankruptcy, supervisors of CVAs and IVAs, the Official Receiver, secured and unsecured creditors, lenders and funders, directors and shadow directors, debtors, and other stakeholders such as guarantors and shareholders. Members are familiar with the conflicts management considerations that arise where chambers acts for office-holders against parties advised by other tenants, and these are handled in line with Bar Standards Board requirements.

• Can members appear as leading or led counsel?

  Members appear unled, as juniors led by silks both within and outside chambers, and as leading counsel. Chambers can field counsel teams for heavier matters and is comfortable working with referring firms’ established silk preferences.

• Which forum is appropriate?

  Most contentious insolvency work is conducted in the Insolvency and Companies Court (ICC) within the Business and Property Courts. Members appear regularly before ICC judges, Chancery Masters and the Companies Court, and on appeal in the High Court and Court of Appeal. Members can also advise on the appropriate procedural route, for example the choice between ordinary Part 7 proceedings and the insolvency application route, transfer between courts, and the use of directions hearings to manage complex office-holder claims.

• When do limitation and antecedent transaction time limits apply?

  Antecedent transaction claims engage both general limitation periods and the specific look-back periods under the Insolvency Act 1986. Early counsel involvement is frequently of value where preference, undervalue or s.423 claims are in contemplation, particularly where the analysis turns on solvency at the relevant time, the influence of a desire to prefer, or the presence of a connected party.

• Do members handle directors’ disqualification proceedings?

  Members advise and appear for directors in proceedings under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986, and on s.17 CDDA permission applications. The team also has experience of related compensation orders and undertakings.

• Is the matter suitable for mediation or other ADR?

  Insolvency disputes are increasingly resolved through mediation, ENE and structured negotiation, and the courts are encouraging earlier engagement with ADR. Members are regularly instructed as advocates in insolvency mediations and to advise on settlement structures including assignment of office-holder claims, Tomlin orders and conditional settlements involving creditor consent.

• What fee and funding arrangements are available?

  Members accept instructions on hourly rates, fixed fees, brief fees, and on conditional fee terms in suitable cases. Chambers is familiar with the typical funding structures used by office-holders including assignments to litigation funders, ATE arrangements and the use of administration and liquidation expenses to fund recovery work, and can structure fee arrangements accordingly.

Why instruct Tanfield Chambers

Instructing solicitors choose the Tanfield insolvency team for:

• Depth across both corporate and personal insolvency at every level of call.
• Established strength at the insolvency and property intersection, a genuine differentiator for instructing firms whose matters frequently involve real property assets.
• Substantive sector experience across property, construction, financial services, manufacturing, automotive, tech and media.
• Published expertise: members contribute to LexisNexis and to leading practitioner texts.
• A responsive practice management team experienced in fielding urgent and out-of-hours instructions.

Barristers specialising in restructuring and insolvency

The team includes silks, senior juniors and juniors with specialist insolvency practices, several of whom are also recommended in adjoining property, commercial and private client practice areas, and a deputy ICC judge sits within the team.