CERIL

Professor Paula Moffatt has been appointed as the next chair of the Conference on European Restructuring and Insolvency Law (CERIL), a leading European forum for insolvency and restructuring law experts. She will succeed Professor Reinout Vriesendorp as chair on 8 April 2027.

Professor Moffatt has in the meantime been appointed as Vice Chair by CERIL’s executive at its latest meeting on 29 September. At that meeting, it was also decided that she will succeed the current chair, Professor Reinout Vriesendorp, at the General Assembly to be held during CERIL’s next International Conference in Rome, on 8-9 April 2027.

Professor Paula Moffatt is Director of External Engagement and a Professor of Banking and Insolvency Law at Nottingham Law School (NLS), part of Nottingham Trent University in the UK, where she has strategic leadership of external relationships and heads the practitioner suite of commercial programmes. Her work is predominantly in the field of bank insolvency and regulation, as well as encompassing secured transactions law, cross-border insolvency issues, and general insolvency matters.

Professor Moffatt joined CERIL in 2020 as an Academic Conferee. She co-chairs the CERIL Working Party 16 on Crypto-assets in Restructuring and Insolvency together with Prof. Dominik Skauradszun. Their first report, produced in 2023 (CERIL Statement and Report 2023-3), investigated the Markets in Crypto-assets Regulation 2023/1114 (MiCAR) in relation to the European Insolvency Regulation 2015/848.  A second report exploring the MiCAR rules for the protection of clients and holders of specific crypto-assets in the event of insolvency among crypto-asset service providers or issuers of asset referenced tokens or significant electronic money tokens, is expected to be published later this year.

Paula became member of CERIL’s Executive Committee in 2024. Prior to that, she was a member of the CERIL Audit Committee and, in 2024, joined the CERIL UNCITRAL Working Group V (Insolvency Law) delegation. In this capacity she represented CERIL at UNCITRAL meetings in both New York and Vienna.

The appointment was announced at CERIL’s conference on the transposition of the Insolvency Directive, held in Paris. Commenting on her appointment, Professor Paula Moffatt said:

“It is a great honour to take on the role and to follow in the footsteps of my predecessor Chairs, Professors Bob Wessels and Reinout Vriesendorp, both of whom were CERIL founding members. I am very much looking forward to working with our amazing CERIL conferees and Executive team, who are some of the most talented and brilliant European insolvency lawyers of our generation.”

CERIL’s current chair Reinout Vriesendorp enthusiastically welcomes Paula as the incoming chair:

“Paula has been a very committed member of CERIL over the last years. She actively contributed to the advancement of our association, by leading important work on the treatment of restructuring and insolvency law in the context of emerging assets, but also as an active member of the Executive. Because of her knowledge, vision and her drive, I am very convinced that Paula will be able to steer CERIL in its next phase.”