This quick guide summarises the duties that directors of companies incorporated in England and Wales are subject to, and how those duties change when the company is insolvent or at risk of being insolvent. It also provides an overview of the personal risk to directors when the company is in financial difficulty.

This note is intended as an overview and should not be relied on as legal advice. Should you require legal advice in relation to your specific circumstances, please contact the Restructuring & Insolvency team members whose contact details are at the end of this note.

What is it?

A new form of restructuring plan (RP) which can be entered into with all creditors. It is found within the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill (Bill) and assuming it is enacted in its current form, it will sit next to schemes or arrangements in the Companies Act 2006 (rather than the Insolvency Act 1986) by way of a new Part 26A, ss895-901, and as with a scheme of arrangement the RP will seek to achieve an agreed compromise / arrangement between a company, its members and/or its creditors.

The UK Government has published the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill (the Bill) that proposes to make both temporary and permanent changes to the UK insolvency laws

Around the globe, our lawyers are receiving a large number of enquiries about mitigating the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) on companies' business operations and finances. Governments in several countries have reacted quickly to try to mitigate COVID-19's impact by changing or amending their insolvency laws. This memorandum is an o

The UK Government has published the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill (the Bill) that proposes to make both temporary and permanent changes to UK insolvency laws. 

The UK Government has published the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill (the Bill) that proposes to make both temporary and permanent changes to the UK insolvency laws.

The UK Government has published the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill (the Bill) that proposes to make both temporary and permanent changes to UK insolvency laws.

As part of these measures, new provisions will be inserted into existing legislation to introduce a new debtor-inpossession moratorium to give companies breathing space in order to try to rescue the company as a going concern. This alert explores the impact of these moratorium measures on secured lenders, with a particular focus on the impact on qualifying floating charge holders (QFCH).

As set out in the first blog in this series, the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill (the “Bill”) introduces a new debtor-in-possession moratorium to give companies breathing space in order to try to rescue the company as a going concern.

Poland’s Parliament (the Sejm, the lower House of Parliament) is close to passage of an extraordinary debtor restructuring relief law as part of its fourth COVID-19 crisis legislation.

The measure, referred to as Shield Law 4.0 (Tarcza 4.0) would:

Different countries frame the exact description of the role of directors of a company in different terms. One feature is common to all – the obligation not to continue trading if a company is insolvent. Again, the detailed implications of doing so vary from one jurisdiction to another. However, this obligation not to continue wrongful trading is at the heart of trust in a market-based economic system.