Ms Sarah Paterson

This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time) and University of Pennsylvania Law School LLM Visiting Students. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course will be relevant to the following LLM specialisms: Corporate and/or Commercial Law.

This course is capped at 30 students. Students must apply through Graduate Course Choice on LSE for You.

It is recommended that students have completed Corporate Rescue and Reorganisation (LL4AJ), although this is not essential.

This course focuses on registered companies and is concerned with the principles and policies underlying the realisation and distribution of assets in an insolvency. The impact of these procedures and approaches on third parties such as corporate groups, secured and unsecured creditors, directors and employees, is also considered. Topics include: setting aside transactions; the pari passu principle and the distributional order of priority in insolvency; secured creditors and security devices; the problem of corporate groups; company directors in troubled times; employees in distress; and  EC and international recognition of insolvency proceedings.

This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures totalling a minimum of 20 hours in Lent Term. Students will usually have two additional hours in the Summer Term. This year teaching will be delivered through recorded online lectures and a mix of both in-person and online classes to accommodate students who are unable to physically be on campus. This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of Lent Term.

One 1,500 word essay.

A full Reading List will be distributed during the course. The recommended text is V. Finch, Corporate Insolvency Law: Perspectives and Principles (Cambridge University Press, 2009) (2nd edition).

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours, reading time: 15 minutes) in the summer exam period.