Insolvency and debt recovery conference

Andrew is a Partner in our litigation and recoveries team based in Edinburgh. His clients are primarily financial institutions for whom he acts in a range of litigation matters, including contractual disputes, general banking litigation, recoveries and the pursuit of professional negligence actions. Andrew also acts for a range of commercial clients and insolvency practitioners. Recent examples of his work include successfully defending a lender in a multi-million pound claim for damages raised against them by a former customer where it was claimed that they had acted negligently in their approach to realisation of securities, and a reported case which further clarified the law relating to pre-action requirements under the Home Owner & Debtor Protection (Scotland) Act 2010.

Andrew joined Shoosmiths as a partner in 2013 following more than a decade at Edinburgh firm Anderson Strathern LLP where he trained and latterly managed their banking litigation team. Prior to that, Andrew was a researcher at the Scottish Law Commission where his projects included the Report on Poindings and Warrant Sales, and the Report on Diligence.

Andrew is a solicitor advocate with rights of audience in the Supreme Courts in Scotland and is a ranked lawyer for Banking Litigation in the Chambers UK Guide, where he is described as being “steady, sensible and pragmatic” as well as having “a breadth of knowledge on litigious matters”. Commentators described him as “very approachable, dedicated to his client and provides very clear and concise legal advice”. Andrew is regularly called upon to speak at external events and conferences on his areas of expertise, and is a regular contributor to publications such as the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland on topics including insolvency and commercial litigation.

Richard joined AiB in 2015 following four years as head of the Fire and Rescue Division at the Scottish Government while the eight regional services merged into the new Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

His previous career included being head of Civil Law Division, dealing with a range of issues from charity law to the law on succession and damages, and a number of jobs in the Finance directorate including, at separate times, being responsible for the Budget Bill, the Spending Review and the SEAS Accounting system.

Richard joined the Civil Service in 1992, with jobs in the Department of the Environment, the European Commission’s Environment directorate general and the Treasury before moving to Scotland.

He read Modern History at Oxford, with a DPhil looking at the relationship between landholding structures, wealth and power in eleventh century England. Outside work, his interests include running, hillwalking and horse riding.

Steven is an award winning lawyer & Head of our Insolvency department.

As a commercial litigator and civil Solicitor Advocate, Steven has spent many years appearing before the Scottish Courts and various Tribunals and Committees. He has also spent time working in the public sector. He is accredited by the WS in Commercial Litigation and also accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in Insolvency Law.

He regularly deals with Court of Session appearance and procedural work and appearances in the Sheriff Court, particularly on Insolvency matters. He is also regularly instructed to provide written opinions in his capacity as a Solicitor Advocate. Highlights of Steven’s career to date include;

• Successfully defending an action for reduction of a trustee in bankruptcy's appointment,
• Acting for the administrators of a football club,
• Acting for the administrators and liquidators of a coffee chain group, which also involved subsidiaries going into liquidation, appearing in litigations post-insolvency related to contract disputes, debt recovery matters, and employment issues
• Acting for the administrators of a trading pharmaceutical manufacturing company
• Acting for the trustee on a bankrupt's estate in seeking the appointment of a judicial factor to a partnership,
• Pursuing a multimillion pound Court of Session professional negligence action which settled through mediation,
• Pursuing a multimillion pound Court of Session financial products mis-selling action claim involving a debt purchaser,
• Defending a multimillion pound claim raised by a debt purchaser and counterclaiming for rectification of the defective facility loan documents, and
• Acting for a foreign nation in a Court of Session multiplepoinding action in asserting claims to an allegedly stolen high value artefact.

Eileen is a licensed insolvency practitioner with over 29 years’ experience of all aspects of personal and corporate insolvency. She is a founding director of Insolvency Support Services, an award-winning provider of a uniquely complete range of training, outsourcing, compliance and practice support services to the UK insolvency market.

Eileen is recognised for her thought leadership in the profession, and for spotting any opportunity that change presents. She specialises in complex issues and dispute resolution, where she combines detailed knowledge of the law with a pragmatic approach to get proven results. She excels in compliance and training.

Licensed by the IPA and a member of R3, Eileen represented Scotland on R3’s National Council for six years, is an active member of R3’s Scottish Technical Committee and represents Scotland on the IPA’s Personal Insolvency and the Standards, Ethics & Regulatory Liaison Committees. She also represents the IPA and/or R3 on the AiB’s PTD Standing Committee, Bankruptcy Stakeholder Group and the Policy and Cases Committee.

Please visit Insolvency Support Services or contact Eileen at [email protected] for more information.

Louise is a Senior Associate in the Restructuring and Advisory team at Brodies LLP and has specialised in corporate restructuring and insolvency work for 15 years.

Louise advises clients on a wide range of corporate recovery, restructuring and insolvency matters with experience in a variety of sectors including real estate, housebuilding, engineering, leisure (hotels, public houses and sports clubs), fish farming, retail and manufacturing. She has been involved in a number of high profile formal insolvency appointments and multi-jurisdictional cases. Louise regularly advises insolvency practitioners engaged in restructuring and recovery assignments and lenders in relation to security enhancement and enforcement. Louise also has experience acting in loan and security acquisition transactions and advising corporates and directors in times of financial difficulty or when dealing with the insolvency of counter-parties.

Stephen is Managing Director of Yuill + Kyle and the author of “Scottish Debt Recovery: A Practical Guide”.

He is a regular contributor to publications such as “Credit Today” and “Credit Management”, and has written the section on Scottish litigation in Croner’s “Guide to Credit Management” and Tolley’s “Effective Credit Control and Debt Recovery Handbook”.

Stephen lectures extensively on Scottish debt recovery law and credit control issues on behalf of various organisations including Central Law Training and the Institute of Credit Management. Stephen is also a tutor at the University of Strathclyde.

Paul is a Law Society of Scotland accredited commercial mediator; and a member of Scottish Mediation. He has a Master’s degree (LLM merit) in mediation, negotiation and conflict resolution. He works as an independent, full-time mediator/facilitator, heading up MNCRS-Mediation, Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Services.

He is a lead mediator for the University of Strathclyde mediation clinic (USMC) which provides pro bono mediation services at Falkirk, Glasgow and Paisley Sheriff Courts; additionally he is a lead mediator at Edinburgh Sheriff Court under the CAB Edinburgh pro bono mediation scheme.

Since 2016 Paul has led and co-mediated many commercial mediations, covering all types of legal dispute. He is an enrolled solicitor registered in 1993 with a full practising certificate, and 26 years’ experience in litigation. He was formerly a partner in a large UK-wide law firm specialising in litigation.

Paul also has experience in training new mediators - he tutors for the mediation elective course on the Diploma of Legal Practice Degree at Edinburgh University and provides lectures, presentations and training on commercial mediation to legal practices.