Dr Riz Mokal is a barrister at South Square specialising in English and cross-border insolvency and restructuring, bank resolution, and the insolvency of financial institutions. His wider practice encompasses company, commercial, and trust law. He is an Honorary Professor in the UCL Faculty of Laws, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen School of Law, and a former Senior Counsel at the World Bank. He joined Chambers as an Academic Member in 2005 and entered full-time practice in 2016.
Riz is instructed in a broad range of matters. He appeared with Mark Phillips KC and Clara Johnson for Servis-Terminal LLC, the successful appellant in Drelle v Servis-Terminal LLC [2026] UKSC 29, in which the Supreme Court held that an unrecognised and unregistrable foreign judgment may found an English bankruptcy petition. His recent appellate work also includes Saipem SpA v Petrofac Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 821, in which he appeared with Daniel Bayfield KC for supporting creditors, and Kington SÀRL v Thames Water Utilities Holdings Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 475, in which he appeared pro bono as part of the counsel team for Charlie Maynard MP to advance submissions on public interest issues.
Other significant insolvency and restructuring proceedings in England and abroad in which Riz has been instructed include Bell Group (Curaçao), British Steel (England), Greensill Capital (England), Hanjin (South Korea), Lehman Brothers (England, New York), NMC Healthcare (Abu Dhabi), OW Bunker (Denmark), Primeo (Cayman Islands), Seadrill (Texas), Thomas Cook (Germany), Unister (Germany), Yukos (Switzerland), and The Z (Jersey). Personal bankruptcy matters include Tyshchenko and Makki. Further examples are listed under the areas of practice, below.
In proceedings outside England, Riz has acted as an expert witness on English and cross-border insolvency, company, commercial, and trust law matters. For example, an expert opinion on aspects of the Selecta liability management exercise, given in April 2026, has been filed in proceedings before the Netherlands Commercial Court of Appeal. The US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York accepted Riz’s expert opinion and testimony on the Cape Town Convention in SAS AB in July 2024. The Royal Court of Jersey accepted an expert opinion on the official receiver’s duties, given by Riz with Richard Fisher QC, in its March 2022 Booth judgment. And in its May 2020 Renren judgment, the Supreme Court of New York accepted an expert opinion on derivative actions and breach of fiduciary duty in Cayman Islands law, given by Riz with Felicity Toube QC.
Riz frequently acts as counsel or as an expert in matters requiring particularly demanding doctrinal, comparative, or regulatory analysis. He combines a decade in full-time practice at the English Bar with deep and cross-border academic and policy expertise. Different strands of this work tie with others, and virtually all require working in international teams, often over a sustained period. The “Practice, Policy, and Research” section below provides examples.
Riz’s academic writings have been cited by judges in a number of appellate decisions, including in the House of Lords (Spectrum [2005] UKHL 41); the High Court of Australia (Ansett [2008] HCA 3); and the Courts of Appeal of England and Wales (Sonatacus [2007] EWCA Civ 31), New Zealand (Strategic Finance [2013] NZCA 357), Ontario (Nortel 2015 ONCA 681), and Victoria (Ansett [2006] VSCA 242). In July 2025, at the invitation of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, he delivered a Cambridge Lecture at Queens’ College Cambridge on justice in insolvency law to an audience of Canadian judges.
While at the World Bank, Riz worked with the governments of eighteen countries on insolvency and creditor/debtor reform. From 2009 to 2017, he also participated in UNCITRAL working groups developing international insolvency instruments, first as head of the World Bank delegation and subsequently as an independent expert member of the UK delegation.
Riz is a Director of the International Insolvency Institute, is one of six UK-based Fellows of the American College of Bankruptcy, and is a member of each of the Global Task Force on Insolvency Law convened by the World Bank, the Bowen Island Group, the International Exchange of Experience on Insolvency Law, and several expert groups on aspects of insolvency law convened by the Secretariat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.
Insolvency and Restructuring +
Banking and Finance +
Company, Commercial Litigation and Arbitration +
Offshore +
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