Insolvency expert joins Harper James to lead new service

Harper James Solicitors is pleased to announce the further expansion of its national team with the appointment of insolvency solicitor, Eleanor Stephens. 

Eleanor joins from Lexis Nexis where she was head of restructuring and insolvency for 10 years. During that time she recruited and set up her own team of lawyers, as well as writing a new online product for Lexis Nexis which provided practical and legal restructuring and insolvency guidance, to insolvency lawyers and practitioners of all levels. Before that, she was a partner and head of business recovery and insolvency at a Top 100 firm. 

Eleanor will remain as a legal expert on the Lexis Ask Panel for Lexis Nexis, answering work-related questions for insolvency lawyers and accountants. She brings to Harper James many years’ experience in advising directors experiencing financial difficulties in a variety of different sectors. She is a specialist in looking at both the company’s legal and practical obligations, as well as advising on the issues facing individual directors during times of financial difficulties. These skills help to ensure that directors, shareholders and their companies are in the best possible situation despite any market issues they may be facing.  

Eleanor regularly acts for:

• Start-ups as well as well-established businesses advising directors and shareholders on dealing with creditors and preventing insolvency situations where possible, or where not, dealing with the circumstances in the most advantageous way for all parties if insolvency is inevitable.
• Creditors, advising on how best to protect their debts and recover monies owed on the insolvency of a debtor.
• Individual directors, advising on their personal obligations including when faced with disqualification proceedings.
• Insolvency practitioners on all types of issues, providing them with guidance and advice through whatever process they are involved in, be it distressed business sales or recovery of assets, among others.

Eleanor will lead a new insolvency and corporate recovery service at Harper James, a commercial law firm which was created specifically to support ambitious businesses from start-up to scale-up.

Commenting on joining the team, Eleanor said: 'I am absolutely delighted to join Harper James and am especially excited to be the first insolvency lawyer to join the team. The opportunities to work alongside incredibly innovative and interesting companies are very motivating, and every day I learn something new from the businesses that I engage with.  I was particularly attracted to Harper James when I discovered more about the ground-breaking way that Toby Harper set up the firm with pricing models completely different to any other law firm that I am familiar with. This allows for a genuine choice of legal services for business without having to worry about prohibitive hourly rates. The way the firm engages its lawyers is also unique and is set apart from the traditional law firms, encouraging a work life balance as well as an interesting and enjoyable career for the lawyers that work here.'