COMMERCIAL law firm Muckle has appointed insolvency expert Andrew Cawkwell as a partner to lead the firm’s restructuring and insolvency team.

Cawkwell will lead the insolvency team in its work with the corporate finance and banking teams as Muckle aims to strengthen the specialist support available to businesses in financial difficulties.

He said: “I’m delighted to join Muckle. The firm has a strong reputation for making corporate deals succeed and when I met the partners I was extremely impressed by everybody and how well Muckle is organised and run.

“Muckle has a very clear strategy for success and it’s great to feel part of that. I’m looking forward to building Muckle’s reputation as the stand-out firm for helping businesses in the North East avoid insolvency.”

Hugh Welch, senior partner at Muckle, said: “Andrew brings with him a wealth of specialist expertise and we are delighted to recruit him.”

Cawkwell has acted for hundreds of businesses in many different company rescue scenarios over the past 10 years and was described by Chambers and Partners as having a “holistic awareness of contentious and non-contentious insolvency law”.