Insolvency and bankruptcy
This area includes:
- Personal insolvency
- Corporate insolvency
- Asset recovery (e.g. office-holder claims, transactions defrauding creditors, void dispositions)
- Claims against directors (e.g. breach of duty, misappropriation of assets, unlawful dividends and directors’ loan account claims)
- Directors' disqualification proceedings / Permission to act
- Receiverships including LPA receiverships
- Corporate and partnership break-up and shareholder disputes.
Members of 3PB’s commercial group advise on all aspects of insolvency, whether that be applications being made within insolvency proceedings or other matters such as applications for administration order, to set aside statutory demands, to restrain winding up petitions or to restrain advertisement of petitions. They also cover the full range of transaction avoidance work (e.g. transactions defrauding creditors, preferences, transactions at undervalue).
We act on behalf of office-holders, debtors, creditors, companies, directors and insolvency practitioners (IPs) providing focused advocacy and advice on all aspects of contentious and non-contentious Insolvency Law and procedure.
Our team regularly appears in the High Court (the Companies Court and the Bankruptcy Division) and in County Courts across the country. One of our team, Cheryl Jones, was appointed a Deputy Bankruptcy Registrar in 2008 and sits in the Bankruptcy Division and Companies Court in the High Court.
3PB is recognised by clients and the leading legal directories for its depth of specialisation and the quality of its legal advice whilst prized for its commercial approach to complex problems. Members regularly deliver talks and workshops for industry groups, solicitors, accountancy firms and other insolvency practitioners across the UK. Members recently contributed to LexisPSL commentary on the Insolvency Rules 2016 and are regular contributors to LexisPSL Restructuring and Insolvency.
For further information about fees please visit this page.
Our Commercial Barristers...
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3PB insolvency, commercial and property barrister Cheryl Jones saw her client, the former postmaster Kavil Singh Rao, have his bankruptcy annulled on the grounds that the order should never have been made. Due to Horizon errors, the Post Office made Mr Rao bankrupt on 20 December 2012. The court has taken over eleven lost and agonising years to correct this injustice, and it should not be forgotten that Mr Rao will continue to suffer with...
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Commercial litigation and insolvency barrister Aaron Luxton joins 3PB (3 Paper Buildings) after moving across from law firm DWF, where he had been a solicitor-advocate and an employed in-house barrister. Aaron has become a tenant of chambers upon the successful conclusion of his third six pupillage, joining the 50-strong commercial litigation team. Working from 3PB's Birmingham office, and practicing nationally, Aaron specialises in commercial, contractual and insolvency disputes. He has a particular interest, and experience,...
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Commercial litigation barrister Saunak Irani-Nayar, who graduated with a BA and MA degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge and has been awarded several scholarships and prizes for his academic results, has become a member of 3PB. He specialises principally in banking, securities and finance litigation, contractual and business-to-business disputes, property disputes and consumer credit litigation. Ranked 1st in his year on the GDL, Saunak achieved one of the highest sets of marks ever...
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3PB specialist Commercial and Property barristers Charles Irvine and Rebecca Farrell (pictured here) reflect on the expiry of remaining temporary measures introduced by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (“CIGA”), which provided important protection to businesses during the Covid pandemic. Rebecca and Charles also examine the impact for Landlords and Tenants of the Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Act 2022 (“the Act”) which received Royal Assent on 24 March 2022, including useful guidance that practitioners may...
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3PB’s specialist commercial litigation barrister Jakob Reckhenrich, pictured here, advises clients on the court's approach to requests to pay judgments by instalments. In this newly-penned article, Jakob analyses the relevant provisions of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) and the recent case law interpreting those provisions. Jakob advises that judgment debtors are usually required to pay within 14 days and that it is for judgment creditors to decide what means of enforcement to use, including the...
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Barrister Jakob Reckhenrich, a multiple-scholarship award winner and Oxford and Brown Universities alumnus, has joined 3PB to advise on commercial, real estate and property disputes. He joins 3PB, initially as a third six pupil, after completing his pupillage at Monckton Chambers and working as a judicial assistant in the Commercial Court, where he assisted, among others, Mrs Justice Cockerill and Mr Justice Butcher. Jakob Reckhenrich came to the Bar after working as an academic philosopher...
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Specialist insolvency barrister Thomas Talbot-Ponsonby of 3PB Barristers successfully acted for the claimant, Mr Hobson, in the highly-topical insolvency case of Hobson v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [2021] EWHC 1317 (Ch) [2021] EWHC 1317 (Ch) concerning whether disqualified directors can continue to act, and under which conditions. In this case, a company director had an undertaking to the Insolvency Service not to act as a company director or be involved...
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3PB Head of Chambers David Berkley KC is delighted to announce that barrister and former Advocate David Parratt KC (call: 1999/Silk: 2017) has joined full-time from Arnot Manderson Chambers in Scotland, having previously been a door tenant with the national chambers. David (pictured here) is a leading counsel for international and UK arbitrations and also has experience acting as arbitrator. He is renowned for his work in commercial, construction, engineering and energy disputes. He has...
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3PB Head of Chambers David Berkley QC (pictured here) and fellow commercial litigation barrister Neil Fawcett have been burning the midnight oil since Christmas ahead of today’s test case in favour of their clients, most of whom are small to medium-sized businesses, after the Supreme Court found in favour of the Financial Conduct Authority in their case against Arch Insurance and other UK insurers. Some insurers have already paid out on certain claims, but many have...
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3PB Barristers have created a dedicated webpage on its website to act as a hub for the many articles, briefings and webinar and podcast recordings about lockdown laws and regulations as well as practical issues like court attendance, e-bundles, remote and hybrid hearings. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to create employment, contractual and other legal challenges which are in many ways unprecedented. The impact of the virus is being felt, and in response, 3PB have...
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Following the introduction of the Corporate Governance and Insolvency Act 2020 (“the CIGA 2020”) and the associated Insolvency Practice Direction, 3PB’s specialist commercial law barristers Charles Irvine and Rebecca Farrell consider winding up petitions in this context. In this article, they outline the key practical considerations for solicitors dealing with corporate insolvency during this time and how those considerations might impact the winding up of companies. Within the article some comment is made of the new Moratorium process and...
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3PB’s pupil barristers Mariya Peykova, Georgina Dietrich (editor) and Gemma Ralph are authors of a new newsletter, ‘’Publications during the Pandemic’’. The newsletter has introductions from David Berkley QC, 3PB’s Head of Chambers, and Cheryl Jones, Head of Pupillage at 3PB. The newsletter focuses on the Coronavirus Act 2020 and highlights updates in the areas of Clinical Negligence, Construction, Competition and Insolvency law with focus on the regulations and laws during this unprecedented time. The...
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