Pictured above: James Lewin with Business Recovery partner Tyrone Courtman

A young insolvency practitioner has begun the journey to helping distressed companies across the UK by passing the profession's most prestigious qualification at his first attempt. 

James Lewin, who works at Cooper Parry in the Business Restructuring Recovery and Insolvency Services team (BRRIS), has passed the Joint Insolvency Examination Board (JIEB) exam. The tough exams have a pass mark of 50% with only 21% of those taking the exams passing all three papers this year.

The 24-year-old had to complete months of study to receive his Insolvency Practitioner status. He now receives automatic membership of INSOL International (International Association of Restructuring, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Professionals). All insolvency practitioners have to hold an insolvency licence and it has been a requirement for some years that applicants demonstrate their technical competence and knowledge by first passing the JIEB exams.

Tyrone Courtman, partner in the BRRIS team at Cooper Parry which has offices across the East Midlands, said: "This result is clearly an outstanding achievement especially as the JIEB are a notoriously tough set of exams to succeed in with the high pass mark.

"We are all extremely proud of James and would like to congratulate him on his achievement and hope this is the start of a long and successful career in the profession.

James joined Cooper Parry in June 2005 straight from college after completing his A Levels. Since then he has worked on corporate insolvency cases, including administrations, liquidations and company voluntary arrangements. He is also a Chartered Accountant.

He said: "These exams are some of the toughest professional exams around and give me a great platform on which to build my career.

"My long term aspiration is to be appointed as an insolvency practitioner on formal appointments."

For more information about Cooper Parry, please visit their website here: www.cooperparry.com