We at No5 Barristers’ Chambers pride ourselves in offering an approachable and efficient service in respect of all matters relating to both corporate and personal insolvency, including cases with significant international elements in multiple jurisdictions.
Our team of insolvency barristers have experience at all levels, from KCs (silks) down to newly qualified junior barristers and are acknowledged as experts in this field, with counsel being listed in Chambers and Partners and the Legal 500.
Our Barristers have experience in all aspects of insolvency litigation and advisory work, acting for insolvency practitioners, debtors and creditors. Our team take a collaborative approach in working closely with solicitors, insolvency practitioners and other professionals.
Corporate Insolvency
Members of our insolvency group act and advise on all forms of corporate insolvency, including administrations, liquidations, receiverships and company voluntary arrangements. Our team of barristers are experienced in claims and issues arising out of corporate insolvency from the initiation of the processes to their conclusion, including applications to set aside statutory demands, injunctions to restrain the presentation of petitions, validation orders, remuneration applications, claims for the adjustment of prior transactions, misfeasance proceedings, wrongful and fraudulent trading, tracing and recovery of corporate assets, the appointment of provisional liquidators, private examinations, winding-up petitions, applications for rescission.
Personal Insolvency
Our team of barristers undertake all aspects of personal insolvency law, including contested statutory demands, bankruptcy petitions, annulments, IVAs, sale and possession of property, tracing and recovery of assets, claims for the adjustment of prior transactions, private and public examinations, insolvency administration orders, trustee’s remuneration, suspensions from discharge and bankruptcy restrictions orders.
Civil Fraud & Asset Tracing
At No5 Barrister’s Chambers, we have experience in all aspects of civil fraud: asset-racing and recovery, breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty, conspiracy, constructive trusts, dishonest assistance, deceit, false accounting and unjust enrichment. We act for both the victims of fraud and defendants to fraud proceedings.
Members of our group are experienced in multi-jurisdictional claims and are adept at pursuing and resisting applications for injunctive relief including freezing orders, delivery up orders, disclosure orders, search orders and Norwich Pharmacal orders. We also have expertise in international asset-tracing and recovery, including advising in relation to disputes involving payments to and from offshore trusts.
Directors Disqualification
Our barristers have significant experience in proceedings under the Directors Disqualification Act 1986, acting for the Secretary of State and for directors who are subject to disqualification claims, as well as in permission applications.
Offshore
Members of our Insolvency group have experience in large-scale, high-value, multi-jurisdictional insolvencies which have an international or cross-border element. These include cases involving Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Dubai, Hong Kong and Turks and Caicos.
These large-scale international insolvencies regularly throw up complex issues involving a wide range of legal disciplines including company law, fraud, trusts and property rights and interim applications, such as for anti-suit injunctions, to enforce arbitral awards, permission to serve out of the jurisdiction, injunctions to restrain presentation of petitions and freezing and proprietary injunctions.
Our team also volunteer with the Chancery Litigants in Person Scheme (CLIPS), providing free representation for companies facing winding up petitions. Members of Chambers have contributed to the Corporate Insolvency and Personal Insolvency volumes of LexisNexis’s Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents.
