Insolvency
Richard is an experienced Junior in the Insolvency department, with significant experience in the area, acting in an advisory capacity, in drafting and in advocacy of all kinds.
Richard is listed as a Leading Individual in Chambers & Partners in Commercial Dispute Resolution and Restructuring/Insolvency, and a Leading Junior in The Legal 500 in Company and Insolvency.
He has been variously described as:
- “He is very good on his feet. He is careful and well prepared, and he has a manner that clients can gel with.” “He’s very persuasive in front of a judge and very good at spotting unusual points.” “He is very approachable and very user-friendly.” (Chambers and Partners 2021)
- “Good to work with. Team player. Nothing too much trouble. Reliable and hard working.” (The Legal 500 2021)
- “Very diligent and always well prepared.” (Chambers and Partners 2020)
- a “talented junior with a burgeoning reputation, who handles a wide variety of commercial disputes including company, contractual and insolvency-related matters”, having “exactly the right attitude” and being an “extremely able and user-friendly junior – he is very much a safe pair of hands on all things chancery, commercial and insolvency related.” (Chambers and Partners 2019)
- “a future star who is particularly good at cross-examination” (Chambers and Partners 2018)
Richard is Junior Counsel to the Crown (Regional A Panel) and, as such, instructed regularly in cases involving breaches of directors’ duties, public interest winding up petitions and directors’ disqualification proceedings.
Richard is also a member of the Commercial, Commercial Fraud and Property teams and thus able to deal with matters also covering those areas of law.
More particularly, Richard’s practice encompasses:
- all aspects of personal and corporate insolvency, for both office holders and those subject to insolvency proceedings;
- voidable transactions and other matters;
- misfeasance;
- directors’ disqualification and unfair prejudice petitions; and
- injunctions
- appearing regularly in insolvency applications in the Applications List in the Business and Property Courts
Insolvency Cases
Recent and relevant cases include:
Absolute Living Developments Ltd v DS7 Ltd and others [2018] EWHC 1717 (Ch) & [2018] EWHC 1432 (Ch) – being led by David Mohyuddin QC in a case involving allegations of de facto and shadow directorship and largescale fraud amounting to £14,000,000 generally, and in two reported decisions relating to contempt of Court and security for costs as against a liquidator. Richard was further involved in drafting appeal papers to the Court of Appeal in the matter.
PS v B & Others (December 2018/Jan 2019) – acting for receivers of numerous properties comprising hotels in London in an action to seek a validation order for the intended sale of those hotels for a sum in excess of £15,000,000 in the face of opposition from the debtor. The case involved consideration of the jurisdiction of the Court to validate a sale of property by Court appointed and out of Court appointed receivers.
Acting for the Crown advising on the interpretation and application of the new procedure for debtors’ bankruptcy applications under ss.263 H-O of the Insolvency Act 1986, which came into force in April 2016. This involved conducting numerous hearings and being actively involved in the preparation of the leading decision on the issue, Budniok v The Adjudicator, Insolvency Service [2017] EWHC 368 (Ch) (commentary on the case may be found in Insolvency Intelligence (Insolv. Int. (2017) Vol.30 No.6 Pages 89-91) and New Law Journal (N.L.J. (2017) Vol.167 No.7737 Page 17)).
MacMillan v Manning (2017) – successful defence of a multi-day trial for misfeasance
