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.

This course focuses on registered companies and is concerned with the use of formal legal procedures to rescue financially distressed companies and businesses. US, UK and European law procedures and initiatives are examined. Topics include: rescuing the business and assets of a company as a going concern; restructuring and small companies; restructuring and large companies; the reform agenda; and theory of rescue and restructuring.

This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures totalling a minimum of 20 hours in Michaelmas 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 Michaelmas Term.

One 1,500 word essay.

A full Reading List will be distributed during the course. The recommended text is V. Finch and D. Milman, Corporate Insolvency Law: Perspectives and Principles (Cambridge University Press, 2009) (3rd edition). Wider background reading will include some comparative law reform and other material including: The Report of the Review Committee on Insolvency Law and Practice (Cork Report) (Cmnd 8558, 1982); T H Jackson, The Logic and Limits of Bankruptcy Law, Harvard (1986).

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