• Station Approach Rd, London SE1 9SP, United Kingdom

Services

INSURANCE

We advise many of the UK’s most successful financial institutions. Our strong reputation in insurance and financial services is due to the strength of the long-term partnerships we have formed with these market–leading organisations.

We are a finalist in the 2019 English Insurance Industry Awards in the category of Professional Services Firm of the Year. We were again a finalist in the 2019 European Law Awards in the category of Insurance Specialist Firm of the Year, and in 2013 we were selected by clients to be the winner of the International Law Office Award for Insurance and Re-insurance in the UK.

We are recognised in the 12th Edition of the 2020 Best Lawyers in the UK in the practice area of Insurance Law. This year marks our sixth year of recognition in this publication.

The value proposition that backs our reputation is based upon unrivalled access to leading technical experts in the field  who think clearly, respond commercially and are accountable for outcomes.

We have the capability to work with financial institutions from end to end, adding value at each stage of the product cycle; from product advice, transactions and regulatory problem solving, through to claims advice, dispute resolution and litigation.

Scholarships - giving back to the industry

Judicial Leads Counsel Association supports both the life and general insurance industries through two highly regarded scholarships.

These are designed to not only foster robust debate on emerging trends and issues, but also provide networking and career development opportunities for not just the annual winners, but all entrants and their employers.

COMMERCIAL

Exploiting the potential while mitigating the risks: it’s a perennial balancing act.  It’s also why in this ever increasing complex, interconnected and regulated commercial realm that you need trusted legal partners to help navigate such a shifting and challenging landscape.

At Judicial Leads Counsel Association, our talented, specialist lawyers look beyond individual deals to incorporate business, legislative, market and industry drivers to arrive at an opinion or solution that is as commercially savvy as it is legally sound.

They work closely with our other teams, as needed, to advance your business objectives with timely, strategic and technical advice.

BANKING AND FINANCE

Our approach is simple: whether we are acting for a lender or a borrower, our job is to steer your transaction to completion as efficiently as possible. To achieve this, we are:

  • Flexible. And not just in making ourselves available when it suits you. We can also discuss different approaches to how we deliver our services and charge our fees.
  • Efficient. We focus on the issues that matter to you, and staff each matter with the appropriate resources.
  • Effective. Our banking team has a broad experience of all types of transactions, acting for borrowers and lenders. Most of us have spent time on secondment with clients, so we understand what matters to our clients.
  • Innovative. In both structuring solutions and providing technical advice.

Basically, we are easy to work with; we offer advice that is practical and easy to understand, and deliver maximum commercial results with minimum fuss.

We are proud to serve on the panel of two of the four major banks, as well as a major second tier bank and other specialised lenders. Recent matters we have been involved in for Lenders and Security Holders include:

Corporate Lending
  • Acted for statutory lender in relation to secured loans it provides to UK exporters.
  • Acted for lenders providing short term secured loans.
Asset acquisition / Property development finance
  • Acted for a secured creditor in relation to presale contracts and consents to lease/easement in connection with large residential and commercial developments.
Informal workouts / Intercreditor and forbearance arrangements
  • Acted for statutory lender in relation to priority arrangements where it is either the senior or junior secured creditor.
Debt sales / Distressed lending and trading
  • Acted for the purchaser in relation to the acquisition of a portfolio of distressed loans (50+ loans in the portfolio) and then assisted the purchasers with the administration and management of that portfolio in order to realise the value of the loans.
  • Acted for the purchasers in relation to the acquisition of 4 distressed property finance loans.
  • Act generally for the assignors and assignees of debt acquired and sold under the Loan Market Association standard terms for par and distressed trades.
Administrations
  • Act regularly for secured creditors as proxy at meetings of creditors.
  • Assisted a secured lender in settling its contribution to a draft Deed of Company Arrangement which ensured the debtor's large retail business was able to continue to operate for the benefit of both the secured creditor and to fund the Deed.
Receivership
  • Acted for the receivers of a large supermarket group both in connection with their appointment and in settlement of the secured creditor's debt.
Liquidation and Bankruptcy
  • Acted for a secured lender to reinstate a corporate borrower, where the secured asset, being real property, had vested in ASIC on deregistration.
  • Assisted a secured lender in a sale of real property where the secured property had vested in the State of New South Wales as a result of being disclaimed in bankruptcy.
Insolvency related advice and litigation
  • Provided support and advice to a lender concerning the restructure of a complex business partnership and personal insolvency agreement entered into by a client.
  • Acted for a creditor in a successful application in the Federal Magistrates Court to set aside a personal insolvency agreement (held not to be in the interests of creditors).
  • Successful defence for a lender, of a claim to set aside the lender's equitable mortgage.
  • Acting for a lender client in a successful application to rectify the priority of its security.
Residual and other debt recovery
  • Acted for a bank in successful loan recovery proceedings where the borrower cross claimed against the bank with various allegations of misrepresentation and misleading conduct.
  • Acted for bank lenders and their appointees in various recovery actions concerning a large portfolio of loans connected with collapsed managed investment schemes.
  • Acted for bank in connection with fraudulent misuse of its invoice factoring facility.
Security enforcement
  • Provided strategic advice for a lender regarding the enforcement of multiple securities across a large group of borrowers (both individual and corporate) and then assisting the lender in the strategic enforcement of those securities.
  • Acted for lenders in arranging, attending and issuing statutory notices under various Farm Debt Mediation schemes.
  • Acted for lenders in contested enforcement proceedings, dealing with allegations of breaches of the Code of Banking Practice and in relation to applications to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
  • Developed recovery functions, policies, practices and procedures for statutory lender.