Barristers

Matthew Parfitt

Matthew Parfitt

Position

Matthew is an advocate, litigator and adviser who specialises in company and insolvency law. He was appointed to the Attorney General’s panel to act in government litigation in 2010 (C Panel) and 2015 (B Panel), and has substantial unled advocacy experience. He is ranked in Chambers & Partners and in the Legal 500 as a leading junior for company law, and in the Legal 500 for insolvency. The directories say he is a “clever, accommodating and client-friendly junior counsel”; “he is quietly persuasive and his advocacy is faultless”; and he has “a cool head, a comprehensive knowledge of his field and an excellent responsiveness to pressurised demands”. His most notable recent court work includes: Burnden v Fielding [2019] EWHC 1566 (trial: unlawful dividends and transactions defrauding creditors); [2018] UKSC 14 (Supreme Court – limitation period for claims against directors); public interest winding up trials: Re Viceroy Jones New Tech Ltd [2018] EWHC 3404 Ch (truffle tree pension scheme); BHS Group v Retail Acquisitions [2017] 2 BCLC 472 (winding up; disputed debts; meaning of ‘insolvency’); Allers v Anno 11 [2016] EWHC 388 (first instance and Court of Appeal) – construction of compulsory purchase power in a company’s articles of association.

Career

Called 2005; Lincoln’s Inn.

Memberships

Chancery Bar Association; Commercial Bar Association.

Education

Winchester College; Exeter College, Oxford (2003 MA Hons Classics (First Class)); City University (2004 CPE).

Mentions

London Bar

Company

Leading junior4
Matthew Parfitt – Erskine Chambers ‘Matthew is fiercely intelligent, calm, decisive, and a commanding advocate who is unafraid to take difficult points.’
London Bar

Insolvency

Leading junior2
Matthew Parfitt – Erskine Chambers ‘Matthew has a calm, thoughtful presence which reduces the client’s stress in any situation. He is also very capable in working through complex information and summarising the position for the court in a simplified and clear way.’