Stephen Allinson

Stephen Allinson, Solicitor and Licensed Insolvency Practitioner, has specialised in credit, debt and insolvency work since 1987, and has extensive experience in dealing with the full range of these procedures. Prior to setting up his own consultancy in 2008, he was a Business Recovery and Insolvency partner at a major law firm. He currently undertakes consultancy for a number of legal firms as well as pursuing other projects in the legal, insolvency and credit fields, and has been appointed the Head of Legal at Apex Litigation Finance Ltd, a new and unique litigation funding company.

His client base has included all the major Insolvency and Recovery practices as well as significant national and international companies in the fields of debt recovery. In addition, he has had much experience working for HM Revenue and Customs and The Insolvency Service on their recovery work. As well as being a Solicitor Licensed Insolvency Practitioner, he has also been an Associate Member of the Association of Property and Fixed Charge Receivers.

Stephen is a popular and sought-after lecturer on insolvency and debt related matters to accountants, solicitors, bankers and credit managers. He is very involved in legal education, chairing the Assessment board for CICM and sitting as a member of the Qualifications Committee of CILEX. He also previously acted as a Technical Consultant to both Credit and Insolvency Today magazines and chaired for several years the premier Insolvency and Rescue Awards scheme for the industry. He was a senior member and Chair of ACCA’s disciplinary processes for a number of years and is now one of the Chairmen of the Methodist Church Disciplinary Process. In 2012 he was appointed the Deputy Independent Examiner for the Actuarial Profession. In 2013 he became Chairman of the Joint Insolvency Examination Board which oversees the examination and appointment of new Insolvency Practitioners and in June 2015 he was appointed as a Non-Executive Board Member of The Insolvency Service and the Chairman of the Board from January 2017 to April 2021. Thus, he has been very involved for several years at the heart of policy and procedure for the insolvency profession. He now acts as the Legal Advisor to Pre Pack Pool Limited in this sector as well as being a member of the Investigation Committee of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Stephen has previously collaborated on major works on both Personal and Corporate Insolvency and has written the leading textbook “Enforcement of a Judgment” (Sweet and Maxwell) which was published in January 2016. He has also written, and part collaborated in the last three years on two business and commercial law books for law students and others and which are utilised at the University of Law where he is a Part Time Tutor. He published the first book written on the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 for Lawbrief Publishing.

Stephen is passionate about learning and education matters in his fields and this always comes over in his presenting style. He has also served as a Director of The Money Charity and The Churches Mutual Credit Union, so is able to see first-hand the issues within his areas of legal and professional expertise.