Richard Obank Email & Phone Number

Richard is a partner based in the London office of BCLP specialising in restructuring & insolvency ("R&I) matters. Richard has 35 years' experience acting for corporates, private equity investors, funds and financial institutions in restructuring and insolvency situations. He acts for boards of directors where there is financial distress within the business and regularly advises directors on their duties and responsibilities. Richard advises on R&I transactions including distressed acquisitions and disposals, debt and equity reorganizations, re-financings and funding arrangements, work outs and schemes of arrangement, often with a cross-border element. He has particular experience of bankruptcy processes in the US where there is a need to preserve value for stakeholders in the wind down of US business operations as part of a UK insolvency process. He has advised numerous corporates on the content and implementation of their company voluntary arrangements, most recently for Clarks Shoes. Richard has broad transactional sector experience including retail, construction, automotive, football clubs, casual dining, nursing & care homes, printing & packaging, hotels & leisure, and mining & minerals operations. Richard has years of direct experience acting as a board director and charity trustee in the education sector which involved the implementation of an operational transformation of the business and refinancing. Richard is a licensed insolvency practitioner (non-appointment taker) and board director and Fellow of The Institute for Turnaround. In 2019, Richard made it into The Lawyer magazine's Hot 100 List as one of the UK's top deal makers. Later the same year, Richard won Corporate Restructuring Lawyer of the Year at the Yorkshire Legal Awards for his achievements in the R&I arena and contribution to charitable causes. Further in 2019, he won Corporate Restructuring Lawyer of the Year at the Turnaround, Restructuring & Insolvency Awards in London for R&I work in the retail sector.