Corporate Insolvency Lawyers

If your business is struggling with cash flow, it is probably temporary; however, your creditors may be chasing you for a payment you cannot afford to pay. In our experience it's essential to seek advice at an early stage to avoid the possibility of insolvency proceedings.

Whether you are in arrears with VAT, PAYE or Corporation Tax payments to HMRC, have received a winding up petition, need to enter into arrangements to allow you time to pay or are potentially facing insolvency, we are here to help you.

For a no-obligation consultation to discuss your situation with our expert and specialist corporate insolvency lawyers, please call us today at our London office on 020 7467 3980 or complete our online enquiry form.

Who Summit Law help?

We adopt a sensitive, practical and, where appropriate, creative approach to the services we offer which best serves our clients’ aims and interests. We also take time to understand and get to know our clients, enabling us to build strong and long-lasting professional relationships.

Our leading corporate insolvency solicitors regularly assist businesses with a range of issues including:

  • Companies facing statutory demands or winding-up petitions
  • Directors of companies in financial difficulty
  • Directors facing personal liability being pursued by liquidators
  • Directors being pursued by the Insolvency Service
  • Liquidators with claims against directors or shareholders of insolvent companies
  • Creditors where debtors have entered into a transaction to defraud creditors
  • Insolvency practitioners recovering assets
  • Claims against insolvency practitioners who have breached their duty to creditors
  • Shareholders making claims against directors for causing a company to become insolvent

Why choose Summit Law?

As a Law Society Lexcel Accredited law firm, our experienced corporate insolvency lawyers offer a bespoke service that caters for your individual needs from start to finish at what can be one of the most emotionally draining and troubling times of your business’ life.

Our specialist team of corporate insolvency lawyers are industry leaders in providing the best advice and representation and that is why we were nominated as Insolvency Law Firm finalists of the year.

We are a contemporary and progressive law firm specialising in a full range of legal services for commercial clients and individuals alike. We combine thoughtful and intelligent advice with a highly personable approach. We are appreciative of the fact that the sensitive needs of each client often vary.

As specialist corporate insolvency solicitors we are at your disposal to assist with all forms of insolvency related advice. In particular we can assist with cross-border and international offshore dimension issues.

Common Corporate Insolvency matters

Summit Law are regularly instructed by companies, directors, shareholders, creditors and insolvency practitioners. We are often asked to assist companies with winding up petitions or claims being brought by liquidators.

As corporate insolvency specialists we have a depth of experience to help you manage a variety of insolvency issues. If you have been served with a winding up petition we can help negotiate with the creditor or apply for an injunction to stop the creditor from placing your company into liquidation.

If a winding up petition has been presented you will not be able to make payments for example to staff or your landlord unless you get court approval. This is called a validation order and we can help you apply to the court for permission.

If you are being pursued by a creditor or a liquidator, we can help defend you and fight your corner.

Our specialist insolvency and restructuring solicitors can assist you with the following:

  • Defending directors facing claims from misfeasance, breach of fiduciary duties, fraudulent trading, wrongful trading, transfers at an undervalue and preference payments
  • Defending Statutory Demands and Winding up petitions
  • Creditors Voluntary Liquidations (CVL)
  • Compulsory liquidations
  • Trading whilst insolvent
  • Validation orders
  • Administrations and selling your company
  • Advising you if you are being investigated by the Inland Revenue
  • Claims that you made a ‘preference’ payment or sold an asset at an undervalue

Our specialist team takes great pride in getting to the heart of the issues as quickly as possible and our job is to fix the problem as soon as possible.

All our insolvency lawyers are well versed in both corporate insolvency and personal insolvency matters. We understand and appreciate just how delicate this area of law can be – not just within the confines of the courtroom, but also the psychological demands placed on directors and their families – and how to navigate through the process in a way our clients feel as comfortable and as assured as can be expected in all the circumstances.

Corporate Insolvency - further information

What is a Winding Up petition?

A winding up order is a court order that forces an insolvent company into compulsory liquidation. This is a process in which the court appoints an Official Receiver to liquidate all of the company’s assets in order to repay creditors. The application is known as a winding up petition.

A Statutory Demand is a form of written warning from a creditor. It will state that if you do not pay your debt or come to another arrangement that is acceptable to the creditor, they may start court proceedings to put your company into liquidation.

Antecedent transactions are specific types of transaction that were made before a company’s insolvency. They may be reversible by a liquidator or administrator if the company was insolvent at the time they were made, or because the company became insolvent at a later date.

A validation order is an order of the court that authorises and ‘validates’ transactions going through a business’ bank account, regardless of the fact that a winding up petition has been presented. In essence the order releases the account and allows certain transactions to go through, perhaps a payment of rent to the landlord or staff wages.

This is a means of enforcing cooperation when liquidators and administrators are seeking to get information from directors and other persons. A solicitor can be present, and we frequently attend with directors being privately examined.

Such actions, known as antecedent transaction claims, are brought by creditors and are aimed at the recovery of assets for the insolvent estate, for the benefit of the creditors as a whole. See section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986.

This is an agreement with a solicitor or barrister whereby the lawyer will act without getting paid or where the lawyer reduces his hourly rate. If the lawyer is successful, he will receive a higher percentage of his hourly charge out rate. If he is unsuccessful, they will not recover all or part of their fees.

Third party funding occurs when a funder will pay the legal fees for bringing a claim in return for a percentage of the damages.

A DBA is aware the lawyer gets a percentage of the damages if the claim is successful.

Call our Corporate Insolvency lawyers

Insolvency litigation can be stressful and tough at times, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We will help devise options and strategies to enable you to make informed decisions at every turn. If litigation is the only viable remaining option, we will fight your corner with vigour but will not lose sight of what your ultimate goals and objectives really are.

At Summit Law, we offer all our prospective clients a free initial no-obligation telephone consultation, the intention of which is not just to provide outline preliminary advice on the courses of action which may be available to you but to offer an opportunity for us to get to know you and more importantly, for you to get to know us.

For more information, please contact our corporate insolvency lawyers today by calling 020 7467 3980. Alternatively, you can complete the online enquiry form and a member of our team will call you back to discuss your situation.