Paul Caldicott

Paul is a partner at Blake Morgan and leads the Business Support and Insolvency team.

Paul is a specialist corporate restructuring and insolvency solicitor and a qualified insolvency practitioner, dealing with non-contentious advisory work and all forms of litigation recovery work. He regularly works on behalf of banks, asset based lenders, restructuring and turnaround professionals, directors and management teams and charity trustees.

Main areas of practice

With over 20 years’ experience, Paul regularly advises boards of directors confronted with insolvency and he has been involved in numerous confidential restructurings (particularly in the healthcare, media and retail sectors). Paul adopts a commercial approach and he is adept at delivery solutions to fast-moving situations and experienced at all forms of formal insolvency process, including administration, receivership, schemes, restructuring plans and monitorship.

Paul has advised numerous charities facing funding shortfalls, negotiated with the PPF to exit DB schemes via a CVA and assisted two local authorities restructure a jointly owned educational services charity,

Paul also has substantial contentious insolvency and Company Act (shareholder disputes and derivative actions) experience, pursuing and defending antecedent transactions, wrongful trading and misfeasance actions, in all the major courts, including the Court of Appeal.  His litigation experience spans emergency injunctive relief, asset tracing (UK, EU and America) and repatriation and pursuing money claims.

Significant experience

Corporate Insolvency

Advising the joint venture partner of a coal mine facing substantial cashflow challenges and following the appointment of a receiver over shares, the funding of the mine and eventual acquisition and termination of the receivership.

Acting for administrators on the pre-pack sale of a business that provided data analytics to the automotive industry, involving complex questions around the ownership of key IP, know-how and algorithms.

Property Receivership

Acting for a development funder, breach of facility advice including reservation of rights and additional funding and the subsequent appointment of receivers to a part-built residential development.

Appointment advice to receivers of a large stately home, including questions concerning regulated mortgages and business use of the property.

Litigation

Defending a money claim in the Companies Court that also involved injunctions in New York and Rotterdam. There was an allegation of fraud (forged signature) that required the assimilation of substantial witness evidence. The claim was litigated during a six day trial.

Re Bankside Hotels Ltd: acting for the petitioner in a series of unfair prejudice petitions plus a derivative action claim, arising out of a number of hotel development projects in and around London.

Expertise

• Government
• Insolvency
• Corporate & Shareholder Disputes

Career

Paul qualified as a solicitor in 1997 and qualified as a licensed insolvency practitioner in 2007.