Insolvency in real estate industry in Asia

Ian De Witt is partner and co-founder of Tanner De Witt. Ian moved to Hong Kong in 1996 after qualifying with honours as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1989. As head of the Restructuring and Insolvency Practice, Ian has focused on commercial litigation and insolvency matters, including debt recovery, asset tracing and the enforcement of judgements, preemptive actions such as injunctions, court appointed receivers, and the appointment of provisional liquidators. He has been involved in most of the major restructurings and insolvencies in the region and the development of the law in Hong Kong in various aspects, acting for liquidators, receivers, creditors, bondholders, financial institutions and directors across a wide range of sectors. Ian has acted in respect of investigations, regulatory matters and prosecutions carried out by the Police, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB), the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and several disciplinary committees. Additionally, he has advised and acted in a wide range of commercial and contractual disputes, professional negligence claims, partnership and shareholder disputes. With almost three decades’ experience, Ian is consistently ranked as a “Leading Lawyer’” for Restructuring and Insolvency in Hong Kong by various publications. Having establishing Tanner De Witt in 1999, the firm today is one of Hong Kong’s largest and best-known independent law firms, regularly ranked as a leading firm.