Karl Williams

Karl is Head of Debt Recovery at Pannone. Karl heads a 14 strong team that specialises in all types of commercial and consumer debt recovery. The team has vast experience with the five senior fee earners having in total over 100 years’ experience in recoveries work.

Karl has an extremely loyal client base of household names such as L’Oreal, Speedy Group and Hilti (GB) and Karl's team is recognised by both Chambers and Legal 500 as team that provides outstanding service to its clients and "ticks all the right boxes".

Although the function of acting for clients who have high volumes of instructions requires a sophisticated IT product Karl strongly believes that clients require a personal service and strong client relationships flow from that ethos.

Best career moment: When you have dealt with so many thousands of instructions over 25 years it is difficult to highlight any particular matter. Having said that, in 2009 I was particularly delighted when the holding company responsible for the Donnington Park race circuit was persuaded, by the action I took, to pay a substantial debt to one of my professional services clients. This happened just weeks before the decision to withdraw the British Grand Prix which led to the insolvency of the holding company.

In the field of bulk recoveries it is difficult to refer to specific cases which have changed the legal landscape. Karl's belief is that the quality of his team’s product is defined by the longevity of the client relationships, with many of Karl's clients having been with him for over 20 years. Although a bespoke IT system is at the heart of any team that deals with bulk instructions, every debt is different and all types of recovery methods are considered at the outset and there is not a "sausage machine" mentality.

Karl's ethos is simply that clients require a pro active and cost effective approach towards the recovery process and Karl has found over the years that many clients are just as appreciative of being told that there is no commercial value in continuing to pursue a debt as they are at being told the cheque has arrived. 

A sensible use of Bankruptcy and Winding Up proceedings is a particular method of recovery in which Karl specialises and which certain industry sectors with transient debtors use on a regular basis.  

A fixed fee service allows a client to budget with some certainty in the recovery process which Karl feels is a vital backstop for clients but it is also important to be imaginative with fee structures. This has, of late, resulted in winning substantial contracts with new clients.