Cross Border Restructuring and Insolvency

The team has a preeminent reputation for cross border insolvency work. They regularly advise office holders, charge holders, individuals and businesses on all aspects of cross border insolvency issues. Through membership of our Advoc network we are able to provide international advice in over 50 countries. The team are regularly instructed to realise assets in continental Europe as well as further afield in Australia and the United States.

The cross border team includes dedicated members from other specialist teams such as Corporate, Commercial Property, Employment and IP/IT in order to provide expert, pragmatic and commercial advice.
 

Work handled:

• Recognition of Foreign Proceedings;
• Letters of Request from foreign courts;
• Restructuring & business/asset sales;
• Investigations;
• Asset Tracing and Recovery; and
  
• UNCITRAL applications.

Recent work undertaken includes: 

• Acting on the multi-million pound purchase of the business assets and property from its Joint Administrators. The purchase completed after the Joint Administrators had traded the business for 8 weeks and required consideration of cross border, property, environmental and employment issues;
• Acting on behalf of a Trustee to obtain formal recognition of the foreign proceeding, tracing assets across continental Europe and private examination of the bankrupts under the UNCITRAL model law;
• Advising a Canadian charge holder on the options available to them in relation to an English division of a Canadian Company which had entered Chapter 11 proceedings resulting in the subsequent sale of the business and significant recoveries for the charge holder;
• Acting for a Trustee in the tracing and realisation of assets across numerous jurisdictions to include South Africa, the United States, Bulgaria and Cyprus; and
• Acting for the Trustee in Bankruptcy of flamboyant Australian stockbroker Rene Rivkin in obtaining recognition of the bankruptcy in England and Jersey.  Recognition in Jersey led to the recovery of AUD$3 million being recovered following a freezing injunction obtained in 24 hours.