Thomas
Cockburn

Tom’s insolvency practice encompasses both personal and corporate insolvency, and he acts for office-holders as well as individuals and directors. His experience includes applications to set aside antecedent transactions, claims against directors for misfeasance, breach of trust and breach of fiduciary duties, administration applications, and applications within bankruptcy proceedings.

Tom is frequently instructed by HMRC and the Official Receiver in insolvency cases, and by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade in director disqualification proceedings.

Tom’s recent cases include:

• The Secretary of State for Business and Trade v Sekhon[2024] EWHC 674 (Ch): acted for the Secretary of State in director disqualification proceedings.
• Re V1CE Limited; Falodun v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy[2023] EWHC 182 (Ch): acted for the Secretary of State in a claim for permission to act as a director under section 17 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986
• Glam and Tan Limited, Barnett v Litras[2022] EWHC 855 (Ch): acting for the liquidator in a misfeasance application. Chief Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Briggs considered the extent of the court’s discretion under section 212(3) of the Insolvency Act 1986 to order repayment of sums paid out in breach of duty in circumstances where the payments were found to have been made as a result of her husband’s controlling and violent behaviour.
• Re Investin Quay House Ltd[2021] EWHC 2371 (Ch) acted for a supporting creditor on a winding up petition disputed on jurisdictional grounds. The court was held to have jurisdiction due to the company’s COMI and under the court’s power to wind up unregistered companies.
• Huntley v Collier[2021] EWHC 1091 (Ch): acting for a creditor in an application to set aside an IVA. Tom subsequently obtained a further order setting aside a replacement IVA in the same proceedings in 2022.
• Magan v Wilton Management Ltd[2021] EWHC 3393 (Ch): acted for the trustee in bankruptcy in Lord Magan’s unsuccessful application to annul his bankruptcy order
• Lock v Aylesbury Vale DC[2018] EWHC 2015 (Ch): acted for the local authority petitioning creditor in an appeal against a bankruptcy order. The judgment provides authority that a petitioning local authority has the burden of showing a prima facie case that the bankruptcy would serve some useful purpose where it has been suggested that the debtor has no assets.

Tom accepts instructions in all kinds of property disputes. He has represented landlords, tenants, mortgagees and mortgagors, and has experience of dilapidation claims, applications for the renewal of business leases, construction disputes, claims to recover deposits, boundary disputes and applications for injunctive relief.

Current and recent instructions include:

• Service charge litigation, including recovery of service charges by landlords, tribunal managers and RTM companies of large residential blocks.
• Acting for a former commercial tenant in a claim against her landlord for return of her deposit, including defending a dilapidations counterclaim.
• Acting for applicants and respondents in proceedings for the appointment of tribunal appointed managers.
• Obtaining a declaration of beneficial ownership against the legal owner of a property in TOLATA proceedings in which the legal owner challenged the validity of a declaration of trust on the basis of duress and non est factum.
• Acting in proceedings concerning the validity of notices of severance of joint beneficial interests in property.
• Obtaining a vesting order for a company restored to the register in British Colombia after its property in England had escheated to the Crown upon its dissolution.
• Obtaining possession orders against trespassers in commercial premises.
• Frequent appearances in residential possession hearings and commercial forfeiture proceedings.

Tom also has a broad advisory practice and has recently advised on matters including the existence and scope of easements, the enforceability of restrictive covenants, the validity of notices in leasehold enfranchisement proceedings, the beneficial ownership of properties, adverse possession, and nuisance.

Tom has written and lectured on the law of common land and rights of common, has experience of town and village green inquiries and advises public authorities, landowners and interest groups in relation to public rights of way.

Tom is frequently instructed to advise on issues arising from the administration of estates both in contentious and non-contentious contexts. He has experience of advising on claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 and has also advised on the removal of personal representatives, claims disputing the validity of wills on the basis of lack of capacity, undue influence and want of knowledge and approval, and on the construction of wills.

Current and recent instructions include:

• West v Churchill [2024] EWHC 940 (Ch): acted for one of two administrators in an application to exclude evidence and strike out the respondent administrator’s counterclaim that the parties held property on trust for her. The court held that the material was subject to without prejudice privilege and did not support a counterclaim either on the basis of proprietary estoppel or a constructive trust.
• Advising the family of an individual whose will had left the majority of her estate to a man who had made the arrangements for the drafting of her will in questionable circumstances. The parties reached a settlement following pre-action correspondence threatening a claim to pronounce against the will based on lack of testamentary capacity, lack of knowledge and approval, and undue influence.
• Obtaining an order removing an executrix under section 50 of the administration of justice act 1985.
• Acting for the litigation friend of a child defendant to a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975
• Acting for a professional executor in proceedings brought against his predecessor executor to account to the estate for sums received.
• Acting for a widow in possession proceedings against her daughter who had refused to vacate the property following her father’s death.
• Advising on the recoverability of a statutory legacy in an intestacy that had not been administered for over 30 years.
• Advising on the domicile of a deceased for the purposes of a potential claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.
• Advising beneficiaries of a will on a potential claim against the personal representative for selling estate property at an undervalue.
• Acting for the Treasury Solicitor in proceedings to recover possession of bona vacantia property.
• Advising an executor as to the identification of the beneficiaries of the estate on a proper construction of the will.

Tom also has experience of mediations concerning disputes relating to trusts and estates, FDR in the chancery division, and has assisted parties in reaching settlements.

Tom frequently acts in his own right in contractual disputes in the County Court and High Court. He has also assisted in several civil fraud claims and gained experience of obtaining injunctive relief in the course of commercial litigation, including freezing injunctions.

Current and recent instructions include:

• Acting for HMRC in an application for a freezing injunction.
• Acting for the victim of an online scam in proceedings to preserve and recover sums fraudulently procured from her.
• Acting for the Accountant General of the Senior Courts in proceedings for a prohibition order brought by the National Crime Agency.
• Drafting and acting in restitutionary and debt claims.
• Successfully defending proceedings brought against a casino to recover sums paid pursuant to contracts purportedly avoided by mistake.

In the Legal 500 2024 edition he is ranked as a ‘Rising Star’ in Insolvency, which says “Thomas has a very clear, concise and focused style of advocacy. He is also a very able written advocate who produces high quality skeleton arguments.”

In 2023 edition he was described as: “very focused and detailed with a good ability to absorb facts and get to the nub of the matter.”