Insolvency matters for leading law firms

Feb 17 2010 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

EXPERTS from five of the region's leading law firms have been discussing the future of the business insolvency regime at an event hosted by the North East arm of insolvency trade body R3.

Representatives of Ward Hadaway, Dickinson Dees, Eversheds, Watson Burton and Clarke Mairs outlined recent developments in the sector and the likely implications of changes to the insolvency regime that are due to come into effect later in the year.

The event comes at a time when a survey of R3 members found the majority believed the full impact of the recession on the business community was yet to be felt.

During the last recession, the peak for liquidation was 1992, some three years after the recession had started, and R3 expects that this lag will again be repeated this time round.

Jim James, outgoing North East regional chairman of R3 and head of the Insolvency and Corporate Recovery Unit at Ward Hadaway, says: “The impact of the recession has naturally seen corporate insolvency and all the issues related to it, such as redundancy, employment rights and contractual arrangements, become far more prominent on the regional and national business agenda.

“The recent announcement of the official end to the recession does not mean that all the problems caused by it have worked their way through – and as hard as insolvency professionals can work to try to save companies and safeguard jobs, we fully expect the number of businesses entering administration to continue to grow for some time to come.

“The insolvency regime is evolving all the time, both through the introduction of new Government regulations and the impact of case law, and the discussions at our event will help R3’s regional members stay fully up-to-date with the latest changes.”