Map a debtor's corporate structure and assets using registry filings, beneficial ownership data and open-source intelligence.
Law & Contract Management
Asset Tracing and Freezing Orders in Cross-Border Debt Recovery
Equips litigators and recovery specialists to locate concealed assets, obtain worldwide freezing and disclosure orders, and enforce judgments against debtors who move wealth across borders.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
A debtor who senses a judgment coming rarely waits to lose money in one place: shares move to a nominee in another country, cash shifts through a chain of corporate vehicles, and property titles pass to a relative within days of a claim being filed. Recovery specialists and litigators need more than a favourable judgment; they need investigative and protective tools that stop dissipation before it happens and follow money once it has moved. This course works through the practical sequence of a live recovery: building an asset map from corporate registries, land registries and beneficial ownership filings; applying for a worldwide freezing order without notice and drafting the supporting affidavit and undertakings; using Norwich Pharmacal and Bankers Trust orders to compel banks and intermediaries to disclose transaction trails; and coordinating letters of request across jurisdictions with different disclosure and privilege rules. Later modules turn to enforcement once judgment is secured: choosing between common law recognition, statutory registration and the Hague Judgments Convention route, using insolvency examinations to expose further assets, and appointing receivers over shares and rental income. Delegates work through a running recovery scenario, drafting a without-notice application and an enforcement strategy memorandum.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Draft and support a without-notice application for a worldwide freezing order, including the cross-undertaking in damages.
Obtain Norwich Pharmacal and Bankers Trust orders to compel third parties to disclose transaction and account information.
Coordinate letters of request and mutual legal assistance applications across jurisdictions with differing evidence rules.
Select the most effective enforcement route for a foreign judgment, weighing common law, statutory and treaty mechanisms.
Use insolvency examinations and receivership orders to expose and recover assets hidden behind nominees and trusts.
Assess the costs, security and cross-undertaking risks of protective relief before recommending it to a client.
Who Should Attend
Litigation and dispute resolution lawyers handling cross-border debt claims
In-house counsel pursuing recovery against defaulting customers or partners
Insolvency practitioners tracing assets on behalf of creditors or liquidators
Corporate recovery and forensic accounting specialists supporting legal teams
Banking and finance lawyers enforcing security and guarantees internationally
Compliance and risk officers assessing counterparty asset and recovery risk
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Building the Asset Map Before You Litigate
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Registry, Land and Beneficial Ownership Intelligence
- Search company, land and intellectual property registries across jurisdictions to build a preliminary asset inventory.
- Use beneficial ownership registers and corporate transparency filings to identify the individuals behind holding structures.
- Apply open-source intelligence techniques to corroborate lifestyle, travel and business indicators of undisclosed wealth.
- Brief forensic accountants and investigators on the scope, budget and evidentiary standard needed for a tracing report.
Session 2Corporate Veils, Trusts and Nominee Structures
- Distinguish cases where a court will pierce the corporate veil from those where separate legal personality will be upheld.
- Trace assets through discretionary trusts, foundations and nominee shareholders using equitable tracing principles.
- Identify sham and alter-ego arguments available where a debtor uses a corporate structure to defeat a known claim.
- Map informal family and business networks that commonly receive assets moved ahead of anticipated enforcement.
02Freezing and Disclosure Orders as Protective Relief
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Worldwide Freezing Orders and the Without-Notice Hearing
- Establish the good arguable case, real risk of dissipation and full and frank disclosure duties a freezing application demands.
- Draft the without-notice application, supporting affidavit and standard form order for a worldwide freezing injunction.
- Negotiate the cross-undertaking in damages and living, legal and business expense allowances within a frozen estate.
- Prepare for the return date hearing where a defendant challenges the order or seeks its variation or discharge.
Session 2Ancillary Disclosure and Third-Party Compliance
- Obtain Norwich Pharmacal orders against banks and intermediaries who are mixed up in a wrongdoer's asset movements.
- Use Bankers Trust orders to compel disclosure of account information needed to continue an active tracing exercise.
- Manage third-party compliance costs, banking confidentiality objections and tipping-off risks during disclosure.
- Sequence disclosure requests so that each response narrows the search before the next jurisdiction is approached.
03Cross-Border Evidence and Judicial Cooperation
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Letters of Request and Mutual Legal Assistance
- Draft letters of request seeking evidence or asset disclosure from a foreign court under the Hague Evidence Convention.
- Navigate differing approaches to privilege, banking secrecy and pre-trial disclosure between common law and civil law courts.
- Use mutual legal assistance channels where parallel criminal or regulatory proceedings touch the same asset trail.
- Coordinate local counsel instructions so evidence gathered abroad remains admissible in the originating proceedings.
Session 2Managing Offshore and Multi-Jurisdictional Recovery Teams
- Instruct offshore counsel in common recovery jurisdictions and align strategy on freezing, disclosure and receivership relief.
- Sequence parallel applications across jurisdictions to prevent a debtor from using one court's delay to defeat another's order.
- Control the cost and information-sharing risks of running simultaneous proceedings in several legal systems at once.
- Reconcile conflicting orders or rulings where two courts assert jurisdiction over the same frozen assets.
04From Judgment to Recovered Funds
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments
- Choose between common law recognition, statutory registration and the Hague Judgments Convention for a given target jurisdiction.
- Anticipate defences of natural justice, fraud and public policy that a debtor may raise to resist recognition.
- Convert a recognised judgment into local enforcement mechanisms such as charging, garnishee and third-party debt orders.
- Advise on currency conversion, interest accrual and sanctions screening before funds are repatriated to the creditor.
Session 2Insolvency Tools and Receivership Over Assets
- Use bankruptcy or winding-up petitions strategically to trigger investigatory powers unavailable in ordinary litigation.
- Apply for examinations of the debtor and associated parties under insolvency law to compel evidence of hidden assets.
- Appoint receivers over shares, rental income and royalty streams where direct seizure of an asset is not practical.
- Close out a recovery file with a reconciliation report showing costs recovered against sums actually collected.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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