Graeme Kirk

Graeme is an experienced practitioner specialising in commercial and property law, and related areas including employment, company law and personal/corporate insolvency, as well as landlord and tenant work. Graeme also drafts commercial contracts.

He combines a commercial and practical method and is always very approachable.

Graeme is very happy to provide seminars, and previously taught at BPP Law School.

Graeme accepts appropriate Direct Public Access instructions.

Further information

Qualifications

MA in Modern History (Lincoln College, Oxford)
CPE (PGDip Law), City University
BVC, Inns of Court School of Law

Interests

Graeme has three teenagers who keep him busy when he is not at work.

He loves all sorts of music, West Ham United and, until he had children, did a lot of travelling.

Insolvency

Graeme has wide-ranging experience at High and County Court levels, in both corporate and personal insolvency matters. He acts for individuals and companies on the instructions of solicitors, insolvency practitioners or under Direct Public Access rules. As a member of the Property and Commercial teams, he is particularly interest in the overlap between these areas.

Examples of recent insolvency work

Re. B (2018) – ongoing dispute about jurisdiction (based on COMI) in personal bankruptcy.
Re. Swimbetter (2018) – directions from the Business and Property Court upon creditors’ failure to approve proposals.
Re. Davies (2017) – claims by Trustees in Bankruptcy for (amongst other things) an Order for Sale of a property which a former bankrupt had ostentatiously converted contrary to planning regulations, which had led to his conviction, and concerning the costs associated with those criminal proceedings.
Re. GL Management (2016) – resisting attempts by a liquidator to make personal claims against Directors of a company against allegations of unlawful distribution.
Re. Greenwood (2013) – resisting attempts by a liquidator to recover company debts against a businessman in circumstances where companies had (he alleged) fraudulently been incorporated using his name, but of which he was not a director or shareholder and had no executive involvement.
Official Receiver v J, Official Receiver v K (2013) – a series of cases in which German national resisted attempts by the OR to establish interests of bankrupts in the UK.
Towsey v Highgrove Homes Ltd [2013] BLR 45 – concerning efforts to wind a company up based on an adjudicated construction debt for which summary judgment has not initially been obtained from the TCC.

Seminars/Training

Graeme is available to deliver seminars on any insolvency-related issue, including the subject matters of the cases summarised above. He is a member of the construction and insolvency teams and would be delighted to provide training in these areas.

Notable Cases

Utip v McLelland [2022] 3 WLUK 309 – a decision on whether a statutory demand can be set aside when the existence of an interim charging order to provide security for the creditor would be defeasible if a bankruptcy order was made before the order became final.

Towsey v Highgrove Homes Ltd [2013] BLR 45 – concerning whether it is possible to seek to wind a company up based on an adjudicated construction debt for which summary judgment has not initially been obtained from the TCC.