If your business is in financial distress, early and pragmatic advice is essential to help you safeguard your business and employees. Our expert restructuring & insolvency solicitors can provide prompt guidance to help you through a challenging time.
We will give you an honest assessment of your situation and discuss the options available to you. Once a plan has been established, we will work with you to implement it, including dealing with employment issues such as changes to employment terms and conditions and redundancies.
If insolvency is inevitable, we can steer you through the process, ensuring that your exposure to liability is minimised and that the correct procedures are followed throughout.
Contact our Restructuring & Insolvency Solicitors Today
If you are dealing with restructuring or insolvency, contact our restructuring and insolvency lawyers today and we will be happy to help. We have offices in Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge, Ipswich, Norwich and Leeds.
When you work with us, we can provide HR consultancy support, as well as legal advice and representation, depending on your needs.
Restructuring and Insolvency Employment Law Services
Corporate restructuring and insolvency law advice
If your business is facing difficulties, we can offer insight into the potential ways forward and work with you to establish what you want to achieve and whether this is realistic. Our expert restructuring consultants will give you clear guidance on the possibilities open to you and the way in which a restructuring could work.
Business restructuring
When you restructure a business, you need lawyers with confident expertise in multiple areas of the law, including legal compliance, corporate liability and employer obligations. We offer a full range of expertise to ensure that every aspect of your restructuring is handled correctly.
We can draw up the necessary documentation and deal with related issues such as liaising with banks and other finance providers.
Employment expertise
Restructuring a business has wide implications for your role as an employer. You may need to transfer employees to a new arm of your business, change employee hours, pay benefits or have to make redundancies. Our employment law team can ensure that you do not breach employee rights and help you reorganise your workers in the way that you want.
It is essential to follow the correct process if you are making changes to employment or you could face claims of unfair treatment or constructive dismissal. We can advise you as to whether the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) apply and make sure that you comply with the rules throughout the restructuring process.
Where necessary, we can provide advice for if you are facing legal action from an employee, including dealing with unfair dismissal claims and negotiating settlement agreements.
Insolvency
If insolvency is unavoidable, you need strong representation to ensure that your interests are protected and that you reduce the risk of any personal liability as far as possible. We will provide comprehensive advice on meeting your statutory and fiduciary duties and guide you through the insolvency process.
Our team provides representation to company directors and shareholders who may be facing legal claims as a result of insolvency, including in respect of wrongful trading, transactions at an undervalue and misfeasance.
We also act for insolvency practitioners, assisting them in recovering the maximum amount for creditors and providing advice on a full range of issues, including sale and possession of property, asset recovery and adjustment of prior transactions.
Why Choose Our Restructuring and Insolvency Solicitors?
Having the right advice and support at a crucial time for your business can be the difference between a successful rescue and having to see it being wound up. Our insolvency and restructuring solicitors have expertise across all relevant areas of law, including employment law, corporate structure, business financing, commercial property and debt recovery.
Where possible, we will provide a tailored solution dealing with all aspects of a business restructure and work with you while it is implemented. We will take the time to understand your organisation and what you want to achieve for the future.
Our solicitors deal with contentious and non-contentious insolvencies and can represent all individuals, including directors, insolvency practitioners, creditors and employees.
Restructuring and Insolvency Fees for Employers
Our insolvency and restructuring fees will depend on the level of assistance needed. We offer fixed fees for some matters, otherwise we charge on an hourly rate, providing you with a lawyer with the right level of expertise for your requirements. We will always ensure that you have a quote for the costs before we start work.
If you would like to discuss our restructuring and insolvency advice fees, please feel free to call us.
Frequently Asked Questions About Restructuring and Insolvency Claims
What is the difference between restructuring and insolvency?
If a business is facing challenges, restructuring can enable it to avoid insolvency. This could involve changes to the way a business operates, a financial restructuring or a change in the business’s legal structure, for example, dividing an organisation into separate enterprises.
A successful restructuring can improve cash flow and make a business viable, as well as improve efficiency. Restructuring can also be used by organisations that want to make changes even though they are not financially distressed.
What causes insolvency?
A business is insolvent if it becomes unable to pay its debts. This could be an inability to settle liabilities when they are due or balance sheet insolvency, where a business has more liabilities than assets.
As a business owner, it is essential to know whether your organisation is insolvent. It is not lawful to trade if you become insolvent and you could face a claim of wrongful trading. This is when a company director continues to trade when they knew or should have known that there was no reasonable prospect of avoiding insolvency.
Wrongful trading will expose you and your other company directors to personal liability for losses incurred as well as potential criminal penalties.
If you suspect that your business is insolvent, you should seek legal advice immediately.
Some of the most common causes of insolvency are:
- Cash flow problems, which could arise because of late payments from debtors, a drop in sales or an unexpected liability, for example, a tax bill or the need to replace machinery
- A drop in sales, to include the loss of a major client or customer
- The loss of business to a competitor
- Internal issues, such as key employees leaving
- Poor business strategy
How can our solicitors help?
At Ashtons, our restructuring lawyers make up one of the leading corporate recovery and insolvency teams in the East of England. Our team members have an exceptional level of skill and experience in dealing with all types of restructures and insolvency issues, to include insolvency litigation.
Where necessary, we liaise with other professionals, including colleagues in other teams, such as employment, commercial dispute resolution and commercial property.
Our insolvency and restructuring solicitors are recognised in leading legal directories for their expertise and represent insolvency practitioners, finance companies, company directors and banks. We receive particular recognition for our employment expertise, with the Legal 500 ranking us for the high quality of our employment legal services.
We also hold membership at R3, the trade association for UK insolvency and restructuring professionals.
Contact our restructuring and insolvency solicitors today
If you are facing insolvency or you need to speak to experienced restructuring solicitors, contact us today at our offices in Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge, Ipswich, Norwich and Leeds.
When you work with us, we can provide HR consultancy support, as well as legal advice and representation, depending on your needs.