Mike is a specialist Asset-Based Lending solicitor based in our London office. Following qualification into Hammonds' (now Squire Patton Boggs) ABL Litigation team in 2009, Mike has been advising clients across the invoice finance and alternative lending sectors ever since, most recently having headed up Francis Wilks and Jones' Banking and Finance offering, before joining Shoosmiths' expanding team in March 2023.
The instructions Mike receives vary broadly from standard commercial debt recoveries to guarantor actions to fraud-based claims in both the civil and insolvency courts.
Although Mike works mainly on contentious issues, he also advises his client base on various operational aspects of their facilities where they seek to mitigate risk, including but not limited to carrying out supply contract reviews and assisting with the variation of facility and security documentation.
In addition, as a lot of his instructions are linked to insolvency events, Mike is well-known amongst a number of the key insolvency practitioner contacts in the ABL industry.
Mike's expertise includes:
- advising financiers on enforcement action against clients or former clients and any associated guarantors, warrantors and / or indemnifiers.
- undertaking large scale collect-outs of sales ledgers on behalf of either financiers or insolvent businesses.
- advising on and dealing with complex commercial debt recovery claims pursuant to supply contracts - either B2B or on behalf of invoice financiers.
- advising on and preparing bespoke facility and security documentation to assist with the management of risk in relation to ongoing facilities, including supply contract reviews and facility variations, including, where necessary advising upon any managed "exit plan" for distressed or defaulting businesses.
- Specialist areas include: asset based lending, invoice finance, fraud, commercial litigation, trade finance, supply chain finance, insolvency and restructuring and debt recovery.