Slavena Byrne

Slavena has acted in multiple cross-border and cross-practice teams advising on contentious aspects of some of the largest, most complex and high-profile restructurings and insolvencies of recent years.

Work highlights

Highlights of Slavena's recent experience include:

• Acting for the special administrators of Bulb on the UK’s first energy supply company administration under the Energy Act;
• Acting for the joint administrators of Lehman Brothers on various applications under the Insolvency Act 1986;
• Acting for the joint administrators of various Intu group companies in connection with matters arising from the administrations;
• Providing insolvency-related advice to a client in the sports sector;
• Acting for the owner and operator of a Taiwanese wind farm on the restructuring of its €2.9bn financial debt implemented by way of a Part 26A Restructuring Plan (the first ever scheme or restructuring plan by a Taiwanese company);
• Acting for a pan-European premier paper and packaging producer on the implementation of a comprehensive refinancing package by way of an English Scheme of Arrangement; and
• Advising the Steinhoff retail group on its successful global settlement of substantial contingent liabilities that arose from accounting irregularities first announced by Steinhoff in December 2017.

During her time at Linklaters, Slavena has spent time in Moscow and on secondment to the Practice Protection team at KPMG.

Slavena obtained a First Class Honours degree in English Literature from Royal Holloway, University of London.

She was subsequently awarded a Graduate Diploma in Law with Distinction from The University of Law. She also studied the Legal Practice Course and an MSc in Law, Business and Management from The University of Law, obtaining a Distinction in the latter.