20th Annual Dinner a resounding success

12/01/10

On Wednesday 11 November 2009, the President of the ILA, Stephen Davies QC, welcomed leading insolvency judges, ILA members and their distinguished guests, and sponsors Law Debenture, to the ILA’s 20th Anniversary Annual Dinner, held as usual in the memorable setting of the Natural History Museum in London. Over 500 members and their guests attended the prestigious black tie event, with the following solicitors’ firms, barristers’ chambers and other leading organisations from the UK and overseas being represented (there is a link at the bottom of this article to a list of attendees).
 
ILA members enjoyed a tour de force pre-dinner lecture by the new Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger, on the implications of the HIH Insurance decision by the House of Lords and an unbiased analysis as to whether the reasoning of Lord Neuberger or Lord Hoffmann in that case was to be preferred. A copy of Lord Neuberger’s lecture is available here. Following dinner Stephen Davies QC gave his Presidential address, looking back at the achievements of the founders of the ILA in 1989, and charting the progress of the ILA as it expands and develops to meet the changing insolvency and restructuring landscape, and members’ needs.
 
As a finale members and their guests were entertained and informed by one of the giants of insolvency law, Lord Hoffman, who, following his retirement from the House of Lords in the summer of 2009,  reflected on the major insolvency developments of recent times, a tongue in cheek account of his early involvement in insolvency cases and his extraordinary life more generally.
 
Photographs of the Annual Dinner and Lecture are available here.

ILA Dinner 2009 Attendees