Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
BOOK REVIEW BY PHILLIP TAYLOR MBE
McPHERSON & KEAY: THE LAW OF COMPANY LIQUIDATION
Fifth edition
By Andrew R Keay
ISBN 978 0 41408 920 4
Sweet & Maxwell/Thomson Reuters
sweetandmaxwell.co.uk
MUCH NEEDED IN ‘A NEW WORLD’ -- THE LATEST EDITION OF ‘THE LAW OF COMPANY LIQUIDATION’
An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor MA of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers, Reviews Editor, “The Barrister” and Mediator
Be you lawyer or accountant -- if you are in any way involved in matters relating to insolvency, you need this long-established and highly regarded work of reference -- out now in a new fifth edition from publishers Sweet & Maxwell.
Company liquidation is referred to in the Foreword written by the Chief Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Briggs as ‘an important part of the insolvency landscape.’ ‘It is axiomatic,’ he adds, ‘that the law of insolvency continues to evolve and world events such as the UK leaving the European Union and the pandemic have contributed to or hastened legislative change that requires the practitioner to understand new practices and procedures in what looks like a new world.’
While looking very much to the future, the book does illuminate, with admirable clarity and thoroughness, all aspects of company liquidation, including the “winding up” of solvent, as well as insolvent companies. (Note here that editor Andrew Keay points out that the terms ‘liquidation’ and ‘winding up’ are used interchangeably throughout the text.)
‘A purpose of the winding up of both solvent and insolvent companies,’ he states, ‘is to prepare companies for the end of their existence by eventual dissolution” -- and to do so fairly and equitably, particularly in cases in which there is a public interest factor.
In the words of Judge Briggs, this specialist text ‘explains the nature of winding up in all its forms and takes the reader on a journey through the intricacies (and there are many) of its processes.’
Certainly, the book excels as a work of reference, rendered easily navigable via a very detailed sixteen-page table of contents, (covering eighteen chapters) and a thirty-six-page index. Also note the 160 pages of tables of cases, statutes, and statutory instruments.
As “a part of the insolvency landscape” company liquidation is no one’s ideal of a desirable outcome of business activity. But for lawyers advising clients who have taken risks (particularly in the current post-pandemic ‘new world’ of business), this new fifth edition of McPherson & Keay provides a comprehensive and indisputably authoritative guide to this difficult area of law.
The date of publication of the fifth edition of this hardback was 27th September 2021. The law is stated as 1st May 2021.
BOOK REVIEW BY PHILLIP TAYLOR MBE
McPHERSON & KEAY: THE LAW OF COMPANY LIQUIDATION
Fifth edition
By Andrew R Keay
ISBN 978 0 41408 920 4
Sweet & Maxwell/Thomson Reuters
sweetandmaxwell.co.uk
MUCH NEEDED IN ‘A NEW WORLD’ -- THE LATEST EDITION OF ‘THE LAW OF COMPANY LIQUIDATION’
An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor MA of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers, Reviews Editor, “The Barrister” and Mediator
Be you lawyer or accountant -- if you are in any way involved in matters relating to insolvency, you need this long-established and highly regarded work of reference -- out now in a new fifth edition from publishers Sweet & Maxwell.
Company liquidation is referred to in the Foreword written by the Chief Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Briggs as ‘an important part of the insolvency landscape.’ ‘It is axiomatic,’ he adds, ‘that the law of insolvency continues to evolve and world events such as the UK leaving the European Union and the pandemic have contributed to or hastened legislative change that requires the practitioner to understand new practices and procedures in what looks like a new world.’
While looking very much to the future, the book does illuminate, with admirable clarity and thoroughness, all aspects of company liquidation, including the “winding up” of solvent, as well as insolvent companies. (Note here that editor Andrew Keay points out that the terms ‘liquidation’ and ‘winding up’ are used interchangeably throughout the text.)
‘A purpose of the winding up of both solvent and insolvent companies,’ he states, ‘is to prepare companies for the end of their existence by eventual dissolution” -- and to do so fairly and equitably, particularly in cases in which there is a public interest factor.
In the words of Judge Briggs, this specialist text ‘explains the nature of winding up in all its forms and takes the reader on a journey through the intricacies (and there are many) of its processes.’
Certainly, the book excels as a work of reference, rendered easily navigable via a very detailed sixteen-page table of contents, (covering eighteen chapters) and a thirty-six-page index. Also note the 160 pages of tables of cases, statutes, and statutory instruments.
As “a part of the insolvency landscape” company liquidation is no one’s ideal of a desirable outcome of business activity. But for lawyers advising clients who have taken risks (particularly in the current post-pandemic ‘new world’ of business), this new fifth edition of McPherson & Keay provides a comprehensive and indisputably authoritative guide to this difficult area of law.
The date of publication of the fifth edition of this hardback was 27th September 2021. The law is stated as 1st May 2021.
