Harry Collins

SOLICITOR
Harry is a solicitor in Edwin Coe’s market-leading Restructuring & Insolvency team.

He acts for a broad spectrum of clients across both corporate and personal insolvency matters, including Insolvency Practitioners, banks, alternative lenders, private credit funds and directors. He has a particular interest in advising on complex, time-critical instructions requiring a sharp, commercial perspective under pressure.

 

Harry is experienced in progressing interim applications in live proceedings and advising on matters which have proceeded to trial in the High Court. He is also an accredited International Civil & Commercial Mediator.

 

In the Restructuring & Insolvency team, Harry advises on contentious and non-contentious instructions relating to:

 

Asset Recovery: Advising Insolvency Practitioners on asset recovery strategies to secure realisations within insolvent estates, particularly where assets have been fraudulently misappropriated by a company’s directors.

 

Enforcement of Security: Preserving the interests of secured creditors by advising on the validity of security held against a company’s assets (whether prior to or during insolvency) and suitable enforcement strategies.

 

Corporate Rescue: Spearheading an administration process where there is merit in saving a distressed company’s business for the benefit of key stakeholders.

 

Directors’ Duties: Advising directors on their statutory and fiduciary duties to safeguard against potential claims by insolvency officeholders, particularly where corporate insolvency is on the horizon.

 

Harry delivers precise and pragmatic advice with an acute appreciation of clients’ commercial objectives, irrespective of an instruction’s lifecycle. He trained at Edwin Coe and qualified with the firm in September 2024.

EXPERIENCE
Harry’s experience includes:
Successfully acting for a Swiss corporate trustee at trial in the Commercial Court in defending substantial proceedings brought against it and a family of co-Defendants by a Middle Eastern bank under Section 423 Insolvency Act 1986 for the recovery of c.£19m alleged to have been subject to a worldwide asset dissipation scheme to the Claimant’s prejudice: Invest Bank P.S.C. -v- El Husseini & Ors (including Virtue Trustees (Switzerland) A.G.) [2024] EWHC 2976 (Comm).
Advising Insolvency Practitioners on pursuing claims against third parties in respect of substantial antecedent transactions entered into prior to a corporate insolvency event: for example, preferences and transactions at an undervalue.
Conducting validity reviews in respect of debentures and other security arrangements on behalf of secured creditors to advise on the merits and practicalities of enforcement against insolvent companies.
Advising directors and creditors on out-of-court and in-court administration procedures, including, where relevant, where a ‘pre-packaged’ sale of a company’s business and assets is desired.
Securing urgent injunctive relief against a petitioning creditor to restrain advertisement of an issued winding-up petition.
Advising on and pursuing urgent applications for the rescission of winding-up orders.
Advising on matters involving the complex intersection of insolvency and trusts law to advise on the treatment of various creditor claims; for instance, where Declarations of Trust affect the treatment and vesting of certain assets within a bankruptcy estate.
Advising Insolvency Practitioners acting as liquidators on the recovery of void dispositions made by companies between the presentation of winding-up petitions and consequential winding-up orders being made by the court.
Acting for a UHNW Middle Eastern family in negotiating a cross-jurisdictional settlement with a disgruntled heir to an estate worth c.£250m, including advising on the liquidation of various asset classes held between 5 different jurisdictions for settlement purposes.
Advising directors on their statutory and fiduciary duties both prior to and during corporate insolvency.