Press Release

Kirkland Welcomes Restructuring Partner Christine Okike

Kirkland & Ellis is pleased to announce that Christine A. Okike has joined the Firm as a partner in the Restructuring Group in New York.

“Christine is an exceptional young talent, and we’re very excited to welcome her to Kirkland’s world-class restructuring team,” said Jon A. Ballis, Chairman of Kirkland’s Executive Committee. 

Ms. Okike represents debtors, creditors, equity holders, investors, sellers, purchasers and other parties in complex restructuring transactions, including pre-packaged, prearranged and traditional Chapter 11 cases, out-of-court workouts, distressed acquisitions and cross-border proceedings. She has a broad range of experience serving clients in a number of industries, including automotive, sports, entertainment, retail, energy, transportation, travel, health care, media and telecommunications.

The M&A Advisor recognized Ms. Okike as an Emerging Leader in 2019 and Turnarounds & Workouts named her as an Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyer in 2018. In 2017, Ms. Okike was inducted into the International Insolvency Institute NextGen Leadership Program and the American Bankruptcy Institute featured her in its inaugural 40 Under 40 initiative.

“We are thrilled to welcome Christine to the Firm,” said Edward Sassower, a restructuring partner and member of Kirkland’s Executive Committee. “She’s incredibly dynamic and talented and will help us further expand our market-leading restructuring practice.”

Ms. Okike is a member of the Committee on Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization of the New York City Bar Association, and serves on the board of directors of the Lawyers Alliance for New York, the junior advisory board of Her Justice and the advisory board of Legal Outreach. 

She joins Kirkland from another global law firm, where she was a corporate restructuring partner. Ms. Okike holds degrees from Columbia Law School and Brown University.

Kirkland’s market-leading restructuring group provides a broad range of business advisory and crisis management skills to navigate clients through the turmoil of situations involving financially troubled companies. With more than 200 attorneys in the U.S., London, Munich and Hong Kong, the group is a leader in complex domestic and cross-border restructuring and insolvency matters. Kirkland advised debtors in six of the top 10, and 12 of the top 20, largest bankruptcies of 2020.