Kunal Gadhvi
Kunal heads Irwin Mitchell’s London R&I team, having joined in 2019 from a well-known London boutique law firm where he was a Junior Equity partner, prior to which he was at Squire Patton Boggs LLP in London
Kunal has 22 years’ experience in the Restructuring and Insolvency industry, dealing with a broad range of both non-contentious and contentious work, focusing primarily on advisory and transactional work such as:
- Debt restructuring
- Business sales and acquisitions
- Lender security enforcement and enhancement
- Cross-border restructuring & insolvency
He acts for a mixture of UK clearing banks, UK top 20 accountancy firms, insolvency practitioners, private equity houses, alternative lenders and asset-based lenders. He also works with international clients such as international accountancy firms, foreign and international banks, and foreign law firms.
Kunal also has extensive experience dealing with contentious insolvency matters, including misfeasance and wrongful trading actions, antecedent transaction recoveries, cross-border asset recovery and fraud investigations.
Kunal regularly advises underperforming companies, boards of directors and investor groups on restructuring options and managing key stakeholders and advises landlord creditors on enforcing their rights and dealing with tenant insolvency.
In November 2022, Kunal won the prestigious Corporate Restructuring Lawyer of the Year award at the Global Turnaround, Restructuring and Insolvency (TRI) Awards.
Reported cases of note:
- Re Houst Limited [2022] EWHC 1765 (Ch) – advising on the administration and subsequently sanctioned Restructuring Plan of short-term holiday lettings and property management business Houst Limited. This was significant and widely reported upon, as the first use of the Restructuring Plan process to secure the future of a distressed SME business, and involved the first occasion of HM Revenue & Customs being subject to a cross-class cram down as the dissenting secondary preferential creditor.
- Cosco Bulk Carrier Co Ltd v Armada Shipping SA & Anor [2011] EWHC 216 (Ch) – advising the Swiss liquidator of Armada Shipping SA on the application under the Cross-Border Insolvency Regulations 2006 arising from a recognition order made under Article 17 of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency, recognising the Swiss liquidation as a foreign main proceeding.
- Endersby and Coote v Astrosoccer 4 U Ltd [2017] 12 WLUK 168 – advising the applicants on a successful application for a retrospective administration order over the company that was subject to a winding-up petition to “cure” an invalid directors’ out-of-court appointment of Administrators.
- Re Calibre Solicitors Ltd (in administration); Justice Capital Ltd v Murphy and another [2014] All ER (D) 187 (Dec) – advising the administrators of an insolvent law firm in respect of the multiple applications to challenge the remuneration and expenses; the first reported decision on the important issues in relation to challenging remuneration and expenses.