Stephen Young

Stephen has extensive experience advising on all aspects of corporate and personal insolvency, guiding officeholders through formal procedures and complex asset sales.

• Advised the management team of a business that specialises in the restoration, renewal, and recycling of mobile phone and tech devices in the restructuring of their company, including the acquisition of its main trading company from its administrators in an accelerated pre-pack transaction which was negotiated and completed over the Christmas period.
• Advised a liquidator to sell the business and assets of a software business, which comprised various software packages, equipment, and various IP rights.
• Advised the directors of a coating, laminating, and die-cutting business that had various sites around the UK, to acquire the business and assets from its administrators in a pre-pack transaction.
• Advised a further educational provider to restructure and reorganise its business following the receipt of an adverse OFSTED report, prior to then appointing administrators over the corporate entity affected.
• Advised the joint administrators of a leading south west UNESCO World Heritage site, including advising on trading, BBC filming, and the marketing/sale of the assets.
• Acted for Administrators to seek orders extending the period of the administration and also applications relating to officeholder remuneration.
• Acquired bona vacantia assets from the Crown relating to dissolved companies.

Stephen advises officeholders, funders, lenders, and respondents in relation to contentious insolvency matters, including investigations, tracing assets, and pursuing and defending antecedent transaction, debt, and breach of directors’ duties claims.

• Advised the former shareholders of a hire car business to seek the appointment of a provisional liquidator after the former directors filed inaccurate forms at Companies House and then purported to appoint a liquidator to misappropriate £3 million of company funds that our clients were entitled to. Resulted in a settlement being agreed and our clients recovering their funds in full.
• Acted for a trustee in bankruptcy to investigate, trace, and recover assets located in South Africa, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and the UK, including property, funds held in offshore trusts, and concealed Picasso artworks.
• Acted for a leading insolvency litigation funder pursuing various claims for breach of directors’ duties, transaction at an undervalue, preference, and unpaid director’s loans.
• Acted for leading retailer L’Occitane to successfully defend claims made by a liquidator who had confused and conflated the process of set-off and the adjudication of a proof of debt, reported at Smithson v L’Occitane [2024] EWHC 474 (Ch).
• Advised a trustee in bankruptcy to realise a bankrupt’s buy-to-let property portfolio located in South Wales, despite attempts by the bankrupt and his family to impede the work of the trustee.
• Acted for a UAE-based secured creditor in a directions application to determine the validity of his floating charge security, reported in Manning v Farah [2022] EWHC 2578 (Ch).
• Applied for the appointment of a provisional liquidator over a debt-counselling business and then subsequently acted for the liquidator in claims for breach of contract and fraudulent trading.
• Successfully obtained freezing orders for a trustee in bankruptcy before recovering two properties, resulting in a judgment clarifying the law on equity of exoneration, reported in Lemon v Chawda [2014] BPIR 49.
• Acted for joint trustees in the Court of Appeal case of Hill v Haines [2007] EWCA 1284, which involved the challenge of a matrimonial order as a transaction at undervalue.

Stephen advises creditors, lenders, and landlords on enforcement options, security, and retention of title issues, and regularly defends or issues statutory demands and petitions in both commercial and personal contexts.

• Successfully acted for a creditor to seek a hostile administration order in respect of a global bitumen company.
• Acted for a leading property agency to successfully obtain a bankruptcy order against a judgment creditor after he had failed to complete his purchase of the agency and then sought to argue the court did not have jurisdiction over him.
• Advised a judgment creditor in connection with an application to set aside a statutory demand based on a jurisdictional challenge, reported at Harfield v GML International [2021] EWHC 713(Ch) [2021] EWHC 3299 (Ch).
• Advised a business on complex retention of title issues in order to recover their goods from premises whose tenant had gone into liquidation.
• Advised a well-known quarrying company to seek an injunction following threats made by a vexatious tenant to issue a winding-up petition.
• Advised a championship football team in respect of multiple winding-up petitions it received from HMRC during a period when the owner was looking to sell the club.
• Advised landlords on the implications of tenant insolvency.
• Pursued and defended winding up and bankruptcy petitions on behalf of both creditors and debtors, including injunctions to restrain both the presentation and advertisement of a petition.
• Advised on both IVAs and CVAs and dealing with interim order applications.
• Dealt with validation orders, bankruptcy annulments, and recissions of winding up orders.
• Dealt with company restoration applications and issues relating to bona vacantia property.
• Advised on Insolvency Administration Orders in respect of deceased persons’ estates.

Stephen supports directors facing liability, disqualification, or prohibited name issues, and handles validation orders, company restorations, and strike-offs, providing clear, strategic guidance through regulatory and procedural complexities.

• Advised directors regarding their duties when faced with the insolvency of their company.
• Advised and assisted directors in relation to disqualification proceedings.
• Assisted and advised directors in dealing with prohibited names issues arising under s216 Insolvency Act 1986, including making applications for permission to act.

Recognised by Chambers UK for Restructuring: Insolvency 2026

Recognised by The Legal 500 for Insolvency and Corporate Recovery 2024–2026

Member of the Insolvency Lawyers Association.