Our specialist lawyers have years of experience in advising clients from a wide range of industry sectors on business critical restructuring and insolvency issues.

If your company is in distress, we will advise you on the best insolvency route to follow and guide you in achieving your commercial goals.

Directors of UK companies often consult us for expert insolvency advice on issues such as how to best avoid personal liability or on how to close down a company.

Relying on our in depth knowledge and our technical expertise, we provide our clients with a practical and responsive service. Where required, our specialist restructuring team will include lawyers with expertise in related areas such as tax, employment and real estate.

We often assist creditors on reclaiming their goods and insolvency practitioners on pre-pack sales and other UK insolvency processes.

Restructuring & insolvency experience

  • Advised the directors of several retail, leisure and travel businesses on the duties when faced with trading uncertainty due to Covid-19 restrictions

  • Acted for a publishing client on acquiring assets as a result of a pre-pack administration during the Covid-19 crisis

  • Advised several clients on a range of UK Government Covid-19 support features including CBILS and Future Fund investment

  • Advised several companies (including an overseas bank) on the various ways that a UK subsidiary can be wound up/struck off.

  • Advised Virtu Financial on UK employment law aspects arising from its $1bn acquisition of agency brokerage ITG and various post-merger matter.

  • Advised a UK training company on the restructuring of their business operations before entering into a joint venture arrangement with another UK training company.

  • Advised to Wilkins Kennedy on their appointment as administrators to Sumatra Gold.

  • Advised various stakeholders on a variety of issues arising out of the liquidation of Alphasteel including retention of title claims and the sale of adjoining real estate interests.

  • Acted for Resolve on a range of issues/creditor settlements arising out of the liquidation of PPS.

  • Assisted several suppliers who had significant sums owing and also retention of title claims following the collapse of House of Fraser.

  • Advised Minter Ellison in respect of one of their landlord clients over proposed CVA processes proposed by the Arcadia group.

  • Advised Resolve in respect of the appointment and subsequent pre-pack sale of Protein Haus Group.

  • Advised several directors who have issued personal guarantees in favour of creditors. Since the Covid-19 crisis, this type of advice has typically been in respect of the guarantee of existing real estate obligations.

Restructuring & insolvency FAQs

The main UK insolvency processes are:

  1. Administration
  2. Liquidation
  3. Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) or scheme of arrangement
  4. Administrative Receivership
  5. Strike off

If your company is in distress we offer expert legal advice and support to help you decide which route is best for your company and guide you through the process, driven by your commercial needs.

Our lawyers have extensive experience of advising creditors seeking to repossess goods or recover monies from insolvent companies under a retention of title claim. This would involve looking at the terms and conditions that govern the supply of the goods. It may also involve examining whether the claim has been lost because the goods can’t be identified or have undergone a process, and finally how the claim can be practically enforced if possible.

A company director risks becoming liable for a court-ordered contribution to the company’s assets if they have failed in their duty to take diligent steps to minimise loss to the company’s creditors, from the point at which there is no reasonable prospect of the company avoiding an insolvent liquidation or administration. This can involve the risk of the director being responsible personally for the debts of the company incurred whilst such wrongful trading was carried on.

At Fox Williams LLP we aim to provide practical advice to clients on issues such as how to avoid potential personal exposure of directors if their company fails financially.

A pre-pack administration is the process by which a company is put into administration and its business/ assets are immediately sold to a third party by a licensed insolvency practitioner. The process can be invaluable in keeping a business trading, saving jobs and in providing a better return for creditors when compared to liquidation.

With our technical expertise in corporate pre-pack rescues, we will can recommend expert licensed insolvency practitioners who we will work alongside to provide you with advice and support throughout the pre-pack process.

The key difference between the two processes is that if effective, administration will should lead to the sale of your business as a going concern. In liquidation, the company’s assets will be sold but not normally on a going concern basis to repay creditors before the company is dissolved completely.

Our specialist team of lawyers have years of experience in advising on insolvency issues, with in depth knowledge of administration and liquidation procedures, across a wide range of practice and sector groups.

"The team at Fox Williams provides sound and practical advice. They are highly responsive and very dependable. Their skill set, strategies and communication style are a great fit for our fast-growing organisation."


Chambers UK 2024

"The breadth of knowledge, delivered in a commercially sound manner, is very refreshing and the team has been my go-to on complex regulatory matters for many years. Highly regarded and recommended."


Legal 500 2024

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