Tony Bugg
Restructuring and Insolvency Partner, London
“I have taken a lead role in almost all high profile insolvencies over the past two decades. I am highly commercial and an expert at managing the range of different stakeholders with conflicting interests, finding workable answers by building consensus, where possible.”
Overview
Professional experience
Education and qualifications
Overview
Tony is widely acknowledged as the preeminent restructuring and insolvency lawyer in the UK.
Over the past 20 years, Tony has been involved at the top level on many of the most significant restructuring or insolvency deals. Most notable was his leading role as the principal lawyer from September 2008 onwards advising the administrators in the insolvency of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (LBIE). He also specialises in strategic planning and advisory work and distressed M&A.
Throughout his career, Tony has acted for the full range of businesses regarding insolvency and restructuring, including insolvency administrators, creditors and debtors. His clients comprise all the major accounting firms, prominent banks, financial institutions, private equity and hedge funds, distressed investors and insolvency practitioners.
Tony has also held principal roles in the firm’s management. He was global head of the restructuring and insolvency practice between 2006 and 2016, and then became the firm's global practice head of Banking between 2016 and 2019.
Work highlights
As the lead adviser on a majority of the market’s outstanding restructurings and insolvencies, Tony has advised:
- PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as administrators of LBIE and all other Lehman entities in administration, known as the largest and most complex insolvency in history, which, when completed, will have involved two hearings before the Supreme Court and five cases before the Court of Appeal
- Deloitte as administrators of Waterford Wedgwood in 2009 and the sale of the main Irish and UK operations to KPS Capital Partners
- PwC as administrators of Enron from 2001 onwards, which was then the largest bankruptcy reorganisation in U.S. history, and the biggest audit failure leading to the dissolution of Arthur Andersen
- PwC as administrators of MG Rover in 2005 and on the sale of its key assets to Nanjing Automobile Group
- a major investor of the SPhinX fund, which is in liquidation in Cayman
- PwC as administrators of Petroplus Refining and Marketing
Professional experience
Tony is a council member and past president of the Insolvency Lawyers Association. He is co-chair of the 2017 conference being organised by the International Insolvency Institute.
Tony is also trustee of Grange Park Opera, a not-for-profit organisation and one of Europe’s leading opera festivals.
Education and qualifications
Tony studied law at Nottingham Trent University.