Debenhams Ottaway is proud to announce that partner Juliet Schalker is the recipient of the 2024 IWIRC (International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation) London Network Award for Excellence.
This award honours the exceptional leadership or extraordinary contributions to the insolvency and restructuring industry over the past two years. Juliet was praised for providing creative solutions to insolvency cases and her innovative applications of insolvency and restructuring tools.
Commenting on her award acceptance, Juliet said:
“This award means a great deal to me. I have been involved with the IWIRC London Network since its inception and to be recognised by my esteemed peers, who are also dear friends, is very special. I am very grateful for the support the IWIRC London Network gives me and to my fantastic team at Debenhams Ottaway who make me look good.”
Juliet regularly handles complex high value litigation in specialist divisions of the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court; including of note, being instructed on The Lawyer’s Top 20 case of Invest Bank v El Husseini, a case so impactful that it has already featured in many legal conferences and is shaping the future of litigation as the Court of Appeal has recently clarified the interpretation of s423 of the Insolvency Act 1986.
Juliet is the lead lawyer in the Invest Bank v El Husseini case
The Court of Appeal held that where a debtor, acting in his capacity as a director of a company wholly owned by him, transfers assets owned by his company in an attempt to put those assets beyond the reach of his creditors, those transfers could be challenged under Section 423 as transactions at undervalue even though the debtor is not personally a party to the transactions and the assets were not legally owned by him. The court also held that to interpret s423 of the Act as applying only to assets owned by the debtor, and not those owned by his company, would seriously undermine the purpose of the section.
This matter is on appeal to the Supreme Court (and judgment is currently awaited) and is listed for a four-week trial in July 2024. The Supreme Court’s ruling on the interpretation of s423 of the Insolvency Act will be a landmark decision impacting on a swathe of future s423 claims.
About Juliet Schalker
Juliet heads up the insolvency and dispute resolution team at Debenhams Ottaway. It is the first time in the 250+ year history of the firm that a woman is leading the insolvency and dispute resolution team. Under Juliet’s leadership, women are now the vast majority in the team, making up 70% of the team and 50% of the partners in the team.
She sits on various committees and regularly speaks at industry events. Juliet is ranked as a leading individual in commercial litigation by The Legal 500.
Juliet’s esteemed client base includes multi-nationals, private banks and celebrities.
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