R3’s Southern Conference makes a splash in Bath
01 April 2019
R3’s first regional conference of 2019 was the Southern Conference in the beautiful city of Bath, which saw over 140 insolvency practitioners, restructuring experts, lawyers and others come together to discuss some of the day-to-day challenges facing the profession, issues which could arise in the future, and the UK’s wider financial and economic outlook in light of Brexit. All that and a networking lunch!
Conference kicked off with an introduction to cryptocurrencies in the context of insolvency by Allister Manson, a partner at Opus Restructuring, who explained some of the ins and outs of cryptocurrencies. Allister’s talk detailed how cryptocurrencies could present a challenge to insolvency practitioners, including the difficulty of identifying and tracing cryptocurrencies, and their status as an intangible asset. HMRC’s Grant English, who is part of the Fraud Investigation Service, provided attendees with an insight on how to tackle fraud in partnership with HMRC by using civil investigations to recover assets. Stephen Davies QC and Chris Brockman from Enterprise Chambers outlined in their legal update how Employee Benefit Trusts can present challenges for office holders, and how to handle them in insolvency contexts; while EBTs are legal, they can be a driver of insolvency if they are misused.
Following the networking lunch, HSBC economist Chris Hare updated attendees on Brexit and the UK economic outlook, and explored the potential impact of several Brexit scenarios, including no-deal Brexit, the proposed deal and a second referendum. He was followed by Emma de-la-Haye from CMC Partnership Global, who spoke about how change management can be used to drive organisational change, which is particularly useful for handling restructurings.
The conference concluded with a panel session on the funded litigation landscape, and a question and answer panel session with all the day’s speakers.
R3 would like to extend a big thank you to our speakers, the conference chair Chief Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Nick Briggs, and to our sponsors: Manolote Partners and IRS, our headline sponsors; Gordon Brothers, the conference sponsor; and Credebt, sponsor of the drinks reception. Our gratitude must go as well to everyone from the Southern Regional committee who helped to organise the event. Thank you too to all who attended the conference – we hope you enjoyed the event, and look forward to seeing you at R3’s Annual Conference in Northumberland (May 22-24) or at next year’s Southern Conference.
Stuart McBride
Amelia Franklin
Lyle HorneFind INSOLVENCY & RESTRUCTURING ADVICE
R3 members can provide advice on a range of business and personal finance issues. To find an R3 member who can help you, click below.
