How to get more work as an insolvency barrister.
Insolvency work arrives with a deadline attached, which makes it the fastest converting category on the panel and one of the best suited to direct access.
A company served with a winding up petition has seven days before advertisement and a bank account that will freeze the moment the notice appears. A director facing a statutory demand has eighteen days to apply to set it aside. A creditor who has waited nine months for payment wants the petition issued this week. Every one of those clients is looking for counsel today, and none of them will wait for a solicitor's engagement process.
That urgency is why insolvency converts so well. The client is decisive, the fee is agreed on the first call, and the work is defined by a court date that already exists. It is also why the work is best suited to practitioners who can respond within the hour.
Clerk&Counsel markets across winding up petitions, statutory demands, bankruptcy, administration, director disqualification and office holder claims, and places qualified enquiries with insolvency practitioners on the panel. We are a clerking agency and a trading style of Found First Digital Ltd, not a chambers.
Insolvency instructions we place most often.
- Companies served with a winding up petition seeking an injunction to restrain advertisement.
- Applications to set aside a statutory demand and to restrain a threatened petition.
- Creditors issuing statutory demands and winding up or bankruptcy petitions.
- Directors facing disqualification proceedings and undertakings under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.
- Office holder claims: misfeasance, wrongful trading, preferences, transactions at an undervalue.
- Validation orders, administration applications and challenges to the conduct of an office holder.
Where insolvency enquiries come from.
Directors search under pressure and search precisely: winding up petition advice, how to stop a winding up petition, set aside a statutory demand, and disqualification proceedings. They are typically within days of a hearing or an advertisement deadline and they instruct immediately.
Creditor side work is steadier and repeats. A business that recovers a debt through a statutory demand will come back the next time, and accountants and insolvency practitioners who see a good result will refer.
Office holder work is the professional pipeline. Insolvency practitioners instruct counsel on antecedent transaction claims, misfeasance and disqualification reports, and once a relationship is established that work is recurring.
Being available is most of the job.
In this area response time is not a marketing nicety, it is the service. An injunction to restrain advertisement is worthless the day after the notice appears in the Gazette. Practitioners who will pick up the phone, take instructions the same day and be at the Rolls Building or a regional Business and Property Court within forty eight hours receive the bulk of the urgent work.
Litigation authorisation is valuable here for the same reason it is valuable in commercial work. Issuing the application, filing the evidence and appearing without a solicitor in the chain saves days that the client does not have.
Precedent efficiency pays. Practitioners with tested skeletons, witness statement structures and application notices for the standard scenarios can turn an urgent instruction round in hours rather than days, and can price accordingly.
Pricing urgent insolvency work.
Quote a fixed fee for the urgent application including the evidence and the hearing, and take payment before the work starts. A company facing a freeze on its accounts should pay before that freeze applies, and saying so is entirely reasonable.
Separate fees for the advisory stage, the application and any adjourned or restored hearings. Insolvency hearings adjourn frequently and an all inclusive quote will be eroded by it.
For creditor and office holder work, longer engagements and staged billing are appropriate, and those clients are used to standard commercial terms.
Insolvency practitioner able to move quickly?
Tell us the courts you cover and how fast you can turn an urgent application round. A clerk will come back within two working days.
Common questions.
Why does insolvency suit direct access so well?
Because the client has a hard deadline and cannot afford the delay of a full solicitor engagement. A director with seven days before advertisement wants counsel to draft the evidence and be in court, and will instruct on the first call.
Do I need litigation authorisation?
It is not essential but it is a significant advantage. Urgent applications benefit enormously from one practitioner being able to issue, file and appear without another party in the chain.
What are the most common urgent instructions?
Injunctions to restrain advertisement of a winding up petition, applications to set aside a statutory demand, and validation orders where a company needs to keep trading through its bank account after a petition is presented.
Is there recurring work in this area?
Yes. Creditor clients return, and insolvency practitioners instructing on antecedent transaction and misfeasance claims generate recurring professional work once the relationship is established.
How should urgent work be priced?
A fixed fee covering the drafting, the evidence and the hearing, paid before the work begins. Account freezes and advertisement deadlines make payment in advance both practical and easy to justify.
Which courts does this work run in?
The Insolvency and Companies List at the Rolls Building for most London matters, and the Business and Property Courts in Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Newcastle and Liverpool regionally, plus County Court hearing centres with insolvency jurisdiction.