Robert Paterson

Robert is a partner in the Insolvency and Restructuring department. He focuses on distressed companies. He typically advises insolvency practitioners, receivers, directors, funds and lenders, and all stakeholders in the UK. Robert also advises on cross-border situations.

He regularly advises on accelerated sales and acquisitions, loans and security, real estate, directors’ duties and any other issues arising in (mainly non-contentious) insolvency and restructuring situations. His experience includes advice on distressed partnerships and pension schemes

Robert is on the Charity Commission’s Panel of Interim Managers and was recently appointed joint Interim Manager of the College Farm in Finchley.

Robert often advises on cross-border issues, including recent assignments in the USA, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

• Appointed by the Charity Commission as joint interim manager of the College Farm Trust, the well-known urban farm in Finchley.
• Appointed as an expert witness on English insolvency law in a US arbitration in New York where he was cross-examined under oath remotely in arbitration proceedings.
• Acting for pension trustees in the Wilson v McNamara cross-border pension litigation, in the European Court of Justice and the English High Court in 2022
• Advising administrators of Nektan (Gibraltar) Ltd and obtaining the first ever English administration order of a Gibraltar incorporated company. This included negotiating a business and asset sale as part of a group restructuring.
• Acting for the English administrators of a German subsidiary of Karen Millen and obtaining a novel court direction for administrators to remit net realisations to secondary administrators for distribution to German employees under local priority laws.

• “Winds of change: corporate insolvency and proposed reform” – Corporate Rescue and Insolvency (2018) 1 CRI 17 1 February 2018
• “FCA consultation on restructuring guidance – don’t confuse the devil with the detail” – LexisPSL News – News Analysis. Published date: 08/03/2022
• “Brussels Sprouts a New Order: the Banks and Building Societies (Priorities on Insolvency) Order 2018” – Corporate Rescue and Insolvency (2019) 1 CRI 5 1 February 2019 (cited in acclaimed Sealey and Milman: Annotated Guide to the Insolvency Legislation)

Licensed insolvency practitioner

Elected onto the board of the Insolvency Practitioners Association in 2024

Member of the Insolvency Rules Committee since 2023

Member of R3’s general technical committee

Member and regular speaker at INSOL Europe

Associate member, Institute for Turnaround