Melania Constable

Melania handles Insolvency & Turnaround matters, including all areas of corporate and personal insolvency. She acts for insolvency practitioners, debtors, creditors, landlords, directors, lenders and stakeholders. Melania has significant experience in advising on distressed asset sales and realisations and has acted on a number of “household” retail pre-pack administrations. She also regularly advises on company voluntary arrangements, restructuring plans, receiverships and all Insolvency Act applications (including misfeasance, preference and transactions at undervalue claims). Her personal insolvency practice includes advising on voluntary arrangements and bankruptcies and she also has specialist expertise in advising insolvency practitioners and spouses in relation to matrimonial issues arising in the context of insolvency (including the sale of the matrimonial home). During the 2008 recession Melania was seconded to a national firm of insolvency practitioners for eight months, where she gained experience administering insolvency estates. She also completed her CPI qualification and JIEB in personal bankruptcy during this period. Immediately prior to joining Temple Bright in 2022, Melania worked at Charles Russell Speechlys in the City. She has been described by The Legal 500 as “really brilliant”.

Experience

Relevant experience at Temple Bright and previous firms includes:

• Advising liquidators on pursuing a misfeasance and preference claim against a former director of the company which ultimately resulted in a settlement and recovery to the liquidation estate.
• Advising various administrators in relation to a number of “pre-pack” sales including some well known online retail brands.
• Advising liquidators in relation a multi-million pound Ponzi scheme including pursuing antecedent transactions against former directors.
• Advising a creditor in relation to its position under a Part 26A Restructuring Plan.
• Advising a trustee in bankruptcy on pursuing a matrimonial home sale and possession order which included issuing an application under section 14 of TOLATA in relation to a dispute over the division of interests in the property.
• Advising administrators on their appointment over a property development company which ultimately resulted a successful rescue of the company and returned it to solvency.
• Advising a non-bankrupt spouse in successfully defending a transaction at undervalue challenge by a trustee in bankruptcy to an award received under a divorce order entered into prior to bankruptcy. This resulted in the creation of a new divisional Family and Insolvency Court by Lord Chancellor Vos.
• Advising administrators of a deceased insolvency estate which included issuing an application under the rarely utilised section 421A of the Insolvency Act 1986 for an order to make a provision in relation to the former jointly owned home.
• Advising foreign liquidators on gaining recognition in the English courts of a foreign insolvency proceeding under the Cross-Border Insolvency Regulations 2006.
• Advising a board of directors in relation to insolvency and restructuring options and their general duties to creditors when trading in the “zone of insolvency”.
• Drafting various company voluntary arrangements.
• Advising on various Insolvency Act applications for extensions of administration, fee approvals and other routine matters.