Appointments
Administrations, liquidations and receiverships referred by corporate and litigation teams.
Who we work with
For solicitors
When your client is facing a claim brought by an insolvency practitioner, the most useful person in the room is usually another insolvency practitioner, because we know how the claim is being built.
Office holders' claims are often pleaded with more confidence than the underlying records support. Knowing which parts are evidenced and which are inference is the difference between a costly defence and an early, sensible settlement.
Solicitors instruct us on formal appointments and advisory work as well as on contested claims.
On contested claims, we take these appointments ourselves, so we know how the analysis was built, where the assumptions sit, and which of them tend not to survive contact with the books. That is the perspective we bring to your side of the table.
Appointments and advisory
Work solicitors refer to us
Corporate clients in difficulty
Options reviews where your corporate team has spotted a solvency problem mid-transaction.
Shareholder and partnership disputes
Where a receiver or independent investigation can break a deadlock.
Personal guarantee exposure
Directors facing calls under guarantees after a corporate failure.
Second opinions
On an appointment somebody else is handling, where the client has lost confidence.
Our undertaking
We stay in our lane
- We do not give legal advice and we do not instruct other lawyers on your client’s matter. You own the relationship and the advice.
- We will not approach your client for unrelated work off the back of an instruction.
- Where a matter needs expertise beyond ours, we will tell you and introduce the right specialist rather than stretch.
- If our analysis undermines the case you were hoping to run, you will hear it from us early and privately, while it is still useful.
Litigation support
The claims we see most, and what actually decides them
Preference claims
Was the company influenced by a desire to prefer, or was it simply paying the supplier who would otherwise have stopped delivering? The distinction decides the case, and it turns on contemporaneous evidence rather than assertion.
Transactions at an undervalue
Valuation is usually the battleground: what the asset was actually worth on the day, to a buyer who existed, in the condition it was in. Hindsight valuations are more vulnerable than they first appear.
Wrongful trading
The claim stands or falls on the date on which the directors knew, or ought to have concluded, that there was no reasonable prospect of avoiding insolvent liquidation, and on the increase in the deficiency after that date. Both are testable against the records, and the office holder’s chosen date is often arguable.
Misfeasance and directors’ conduct
Frequently pleaded broadly and evidenced narrowly. We can identify quickly which allegations are supported by the books and which are inference dressed as fact.
Books and records disputes
Where records are incomplete, adverse inferences get drawn. We can often reconstruct enough from bank data, filed accounts and third-party records to displace them.
Overdrawn loan accounts
Rarely as simple as the ledger balance. Expenses, dividends properly declared, and set-offs are regularly missed in the office holder’s figures.
Expert evidence
Reports we are prepared to defend
We prepare expert reports on insolvency matters and give oral evidence. We are clear with instructing solicitors from the outset that an expert's duty is to the court, and we will not put our name to an opinion we cannot hold up under cross-examination.
Where a matter needs expertise beyond insolvency (forensic accounting at scale, valuation in a specialist market, digital forensics), we work alongside specialists who are market leaders in their field, and we will say so rather than stretch our own remit.
Who to call
You will speak to the person who would do the work, not to a business development team.
- Simon Bonney · Director · Licensed IP
simon.bonney@arafino.com · 020 3019 0224 - Tom Maker · Director
tom.maker@arafino.com · 020 3019 0224
Questions solicitors ask us
Do you act for claimants as well as defendants?
Our litigation support work is principally for defendants and their solicitors: people facing claims brought by an office holder. That is where a practitioner’s perspective is worth most, because we know how the claimant is building the case.
Can you act as an expert witness?
Yes. We prepare expert reports on insolvency matters and give evidence. We are conscious that an expert’s duty is to the court and not to the instructing party, and we will not sign a report we cannot defend under cross-examination.
How early should we involve you?
Before the defence is settled, ideally. An early read on which allegations are genuinely supported shapes the pleading, the disclosure strategy and the settlement range. Involving us after positions have hardened costs more and achieves less.
What if your analysis undermines our case?
You will hear it from us early and privately, while it is still useful. An expert who tells you only what you want to hear is a liability at trial and, frankly, a waste of your client’s money.
Will you approach our client for other work?
No. You own the relationship. We are instructed on the matter in front of us and that is where it ends.
Do you take appointments referred by solicitors?
Yes. Administrations, liquidations and receiverships referred by corporate and litigation teams, as well as advisory work for clients in difficulty. We are equally happy to be a second opinion on an appointment somebody else is handling.
Send us the particulars and we will give you a straight read.
An early, honest assessment of what the claim is really worth tends to save a great deal of your client's money, and yours.