Insolvency & Restructuring

Our insolvency and restructuring team, comprising experienced lawyers with skills in contentious and non-contentious law, has a reputation for providing practical solutions to business-critical challenges.

At Fladgate we can help businesses facing solvency problems at all points in the economic cycle. Even in a recovering economy some businesses will still struggle. Changing markets, intensifying competition, over-dependence on particular suppliers or customers, weak cash flow or high burn rates, profitable divisions supporting loss-making divisions, adverse litigation, deadlocked boards or shareholders, under-funding, fraud: these can all lead to situations in which the very future of a business is at risk.

With many years of experience in this field, including acting in a number of high-profile corporate collapses, Fladgate is well equipped to advise insolvency practitioners, banks and other lending institutions, stakeholders, troubled companies, directors and individuals on a variety of corporate insolvency-related issues. We are also experienced in current deal structure in the distressed investment and debt restructuring markets.

Our work includes advising on directors’ duties in the ‘twilight zone’; voidable transactions; company voluntary arrangements (CVAs) and debt restructurings; standstills, work-outs, reorganisations and formal insolvency procedures; administration and other business rescue procedures; closures of complex group liquidations; and acting on sales of businesses by distressed companies or their office-holders.

Our specialist teams are experienced in variety of industries including the following:

For legal updates and news, please visit the Fladgate Dispute Resolution Hub.

Jeremy Whiteson

Jeremy Whiteson

If you have any questions or queries please call Jeremy on +44 (0)20 3036 7377 or email jwhiteson@fladgate.com

Ben Drew

Ben Drew

If you have any questions or queries please call Ben on +44 (0)20 3036 7401 or email bdrew@fladgate.com

“The practice provides ‘responsive and clear advice’ across a range of restructuring and insolvency matters.”

Legal 500 2016

Insolvency & Restructuring team

 

Disclosure from foreign parties

Letter of credit jurisdiction clause overridden

Sovereign enforcement

Investing in distressed businesses – opportunities in the new environment

Jeremy Whiteson

Bank’s claim justiciable

A new lease of life

Pre-packs – some questions answered

Ultra vires: jurisdiction

Performance bonds

Anti-deprivation rule

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Performance bonds

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Anti-deprivation rule

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ISDA clause not a penalty

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Administrator removed from pre-pack

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Contract administration – the cost of not keeping up to date

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Recognition of foreign trust bankruptcy

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Leveraging strong ties with IPs, Fladgate LLP regularly receives predominantly domestic mandates across a range of sectors including in relation to property-related insolvencies. The ‘smart and creative’ Bree Taylor is ‘always up for the fight’ and is noted for her contentious expertise; she recently represented a former director of the UK subsidiary of the “Jacuzzi” group of companies in the defence of claims brought by liquidators alleging breaches of duty in relation to transactions entered by the company prior to its 2011 insolvency.

Legal 500

Jeremy Whiteson provides ‘responsive and clear advice’ and is also recommended, in particular for his restructuring/insolvency work on behalf of entrepreneurial/start-up businesses. Clients include BDO, Begbies, Grant Thornton and FRP.

Legal 500

Key figures at Fladgate LLP include Jeremy Whiteson and senior associate Peter Reynolds, who recently joined from Memery Crystal LLP. The practice provides ‘responsive and clear advice’ across a range of restructuring and insolvency matters.

Legal 500

Often working alongside complementary practice areas such as property, corporate and litigation, Fladgate LLP’s restructuring team provides an integrated service to clients including Begbies and Grant Thornton.

Legal 500

Team head Jeremy Whiteson specialises in insolvencies for entrepreneurial businesses, and in the property field.

Legal 500

Bree Taylor is “very thorough and clear in explaining things.”

Avram Kelman is recommended for complex, mid-market work.

Legal 500

Headed by Jeremy Whiteson, Fladgate LLP picks up a significant amount of work from IPs on domestic insolvencies, acting for clients such as BDO and Grant Thornton.

Legal 500

At Fladgate LLP, team head Jeremy Whiteson takes a calm but direct approach. He is very commercial, pragmatic and streetwise.

Legal 500

  • Media and technology sector – advising a number of different directors and investors facing insolvency issues on directors duties and investment or restructuring options.
  • Hotel and leisure sector – Akkeron Hotels Group Limited’s acquisition of ten hotels from the administrators of Butterfly Hotels Limited and Crowne Hotels Limited. The acquisition was funded with a combination of existing resources and a new 15 year credit facility.
  • Retail sector – acting for a number of businesses, including the administrative receivers of a leading UK consumer goods direct sales business on the sale to management.
  • Hotel and leisure sector – Hamilton Bradshaw’s acquisition of two hotels, the 22 room Ston Easton hotel in Bath and the 24 room Sharrow Bay hotel on Ullswater in the Lake District. The hotels were purchased from the Von Essen portfolio of 26 hotels, following the group’s fall into administration.
  • Real estate sector – acting for a number of property owners and lenders on renegotiation of debt obligations, fixed charge receivership, insolvency options and more innovative solutions, including advising West Properties in relation to the implications for West of the sale of a portfolio of loans, backed by properties and development projects in London and Manchester managed by West from Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), to MSREF VII, the Morgan Stanley managed real estate fund.
  • Hotel and leisure sector – Mulbourn Limited’s management buy–out of 18 Folio Hotels. The deal, which bought the business out of administration, saved 1,200 jobs around the country.
  • Construction and engineering sector – providing insolvency and restructuring advice, which has included biofuels and renewable energy businesses.
  • Hotel and leisure sector – Sanguine Hospitality and Downing Corporate Finance’s acquisition, from the administrators, of the hotel, restaurant and spa premises at the iconic “Cube” development in Birmingham. The hotel is operated under IHG’s “Hotel Indigo” brand, with the restaurant operated under franchise from Marco Pierre White.
  • Professional services sector – providing insolvency and restructuring advice in relation to a number of businesses in the financial services, professional services areas and other service providers including recruitment businesses.
  • Professional sports sector – advising directors, investors and insolvency practitioners including Green Pilgrim Limited, part of James Brent’s Akkeron Group, on its acquisition of Plymouth Argyle Football Club from the administrators.

Integrated

Our clients come to us to solve problems that are often complex and multifaceted. We draw together the multiple strands of a business or personal challenge into a coherent, integrated legal response that combines the knowledge and experience of experts in all the relevant fields.

Partner-led

We operate in small teams in which partners not only take the lead but also do a significant amount of the detailed work. Clients can be assured that the partners they engage and brief will remain closely involved in developing and delivering the advice as part of our close-knit, expert teams.

Experienced

Fladgate has a long heritage of delivering high-quality legal advice. We have been providing practical legal solutions to businesses and private clients for over 250 years. Today we are one of the UK’s top 100 law firms, with over 80 partners and a reputation for providing solutions that work.