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drydensfairfax Solicitors is the product of the merger between Drydens, which focused on secured debt recovery, and Fairfax Solicitors, which concentrated on the unsecured side. The enlarged team includes 330 people across two sites in Leeds and Bradford, and currently has instructions to recover approximately £1bn of debt, managing some 500,000 live cases. Clients include retailers, government agencies, lenders and corporate businesses. Philip Holden is the CEO, and former Fairfax CEO Peter Wordsworth holds the new position of director of client management and business development. The ‘extremely professional’ Phil Harling is recommended. Sue Nickson is set to join the firm from Squire Sanders LLP.

The ‘professional’ team at Irwin Mitchell received 5,000 new instructions in 2011, and successfully recovered £15m of debt. It focuses on recovering unsecured debt, and has been increasingly active in insolvency-related work. Barry Hogg leads the team, and is ‘always on hand’, with ‘impeccable’ knowledge of the area; and solicitor Jane Begley is also recommended. New clients include plant contractors Charles Wilson Engineers, and the firm continues to act for PayPoint Network, PKF, BNP Paribas, Kone, Elemis, HM Treasury and the MoD.

The team at Shoosmiths is spread across the firm’s offices in Reading, Northampton, Birmingham and Manchester, and provides an ‘excellent service’. Waine Mannix heads the team, which was strengthened by the arrival of Melanie Chell to head the asset finance recoveries team. Associate Jason Morris joined with a team from Shakespeare Putsman, to head the national receivables finance recoveries team. The firm assists on the recovery of both secured and unsecured debt, acting for lenders and utilities clients. Richard Gwynne is recommended.

Clarke Willmott LLP continues to handle debt recovery work for insurers and local authorities. It continues to act for a number of London Borough Councils, and recently gained the London Borough of Bexley as a new client, while other new gains include Tesco Insurance and Joma Sport SA. Jane Dunlop heads a team of 24 fee-earners.

Head of insolvency and debt Frances Coulson leads a three-partner team at Moon Beever. Charles Robinson specialises in utilities debt, and the firm continues to assist British Gas in relation to high-value and disputed debt as well as with volume recoveries. Other clients include The Insolvency Service, Dyno-Rod and a number of accountancy firms. Coulson and Graham McPhie are ‘extremely knowledgeable’.

Litigator Philip Robinson heads the recoveries department of Optima Legal, which has offices in Bradford, Newcastle and Glasgow. The firm’s client base includes over 60 lenders, and in 2011 the firm was reappointed to a number of client panels, as well as gaining Paratus AMC as a new client. Robinson leads a team which acts for financial institution clients on the recovery of overpayments or mistaken payments.

Coltman Warner Cranston LLP is a ‘very good’ specialist debt recovery firm based in the West Midlands, and provides an ‘excellent service’. It acts for UK and US-based clients, including retailers, insurers and electrical suppliers. Larry Coltman leads the team, which is particularly active in assisting creditors with high-value contested debts.

The team at SNR Denton, led by James Fairbairn, is involved in trade debt recovery and debt recovery for landlord and tenant issues. It continues to act for a range of banking clients.

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Legal Developments in London for Debt recovery

  • Supreme Court provides guidance 
on forum conveniens and piercing the corporate veil


    Macfarlanes LLP currently authors the Litigation & Dispute Resolution section of The In-House Lawyer magazine. For more information and articles from this author click here . This article considers the Supreme Court decision in VTB Capital plc v Nutritek International Corp & or s [2013]. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the case is that it casts doubt on the notion that the Court has the power to pierce the corporate veil. The Supreme Court also held that, even if the power to pierce the corporate veil does exist, it does not enable a claimant to hold parties that control a company jointly and severally liable under contracts entered into by that company. 

    - Macfarlanes

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