Selborne Chambers

Andrew regularly appears in both the High Court and County Court in insolvency matters. As well as appearing on bankruptcy and winding-up petitions and applications to set aside statutory demands, he has acted successfully to make and resist applications across the range of insolvency disputes, including applications for material under s.236, validation of payments.

Andrew often acts in technical insolvency applications, with a specialism in officer-holders’ remuneration applications. He has also recently acted successfully in the extension of complex administrations involving confidential material, including where extensions were sought in respect of 36 group companies with interlocking asset and liability positions, and where extensions were justified on significant public interest grounds.

Andrew also has substantial experience of pleading and advising on complex claims brought on behalf of insolvent estates, including in relation to breaches of directors’ duties and fraudulent trading.

The questions of asset recovery and enforcement arising from these have also made up a significant portion of Andrew’s practice. In particular, in 2020 and 2021 he was instructed as junior in a fraud claim by office-holders that saw the defendant de facto director sentenced in the High Court to a prison term of 21 months in respect of eight contempts arising from a failure to comply with a freezing injunction, and established, in the Court of Appeal, the necessary mental element required for a finding of contempt (Varma v Atkinson [2020] EWCA Civ 1602, [2021] 2 W.L.R. 536)

Andrew is building a varied commercial practice. As well as trials and interlocutory applications in the County Court, where he has appeared successfully against leading and junior counsel, he has experience of obtaining urgent interim relief in the High Court, including freezing injunctions, proprietary injunctions, and Norwich Pharmacal orders. He is also regularly instructed as junior counsel in major commercial disputes including civil fraud claims.

Andrew has advised and appeared in a number of claims involving wills, trusts and estates, including in relation to claims under the 1975 Act, intestacy, and the removal of personal representatives.

Andrew is often instructed in matters of property law, acting in possession and forfeiture claims, applications for charging orders and for possession and sale of property held on trust or subject to security, matters of leasehold enfranchisement and renewal, and landlord and tenant work.