Nicholas E. Ballen

Nicholas E. Ballen is an associate in the Firm’s Bankruptcy, Restructuring, & Creditors’ Rights Group. Nicholas is a skilled bankruptcy litigator with a wide range of experience in the bankruptcy arena, and has represented secured lenders, bondholders, committees, trustees, debtors, and individual creditors in connection with bankruptcy proceedings and related commercial litigation.

His practice includes advising clients on any number of insolvency-related scenarios, from consummating transactions involving distressed assets and facilitating in- and out-of-court workouts and liquidations, to pursuing claims against distressed entities, defending lawsuits or other proceedings arising in the bankruptcy context, and investigating potential fraud and fiduciary defalcation.

Nicholas has substantial experience prosecuting and defending a variety of claims and causes in bankruptcy court and other trial courts (state and federal) as well as mediation and arbitration proceedings. These include cases involving, among other areas, fraudulent transfers, preferences, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, secured credit, breach of contract, and corporate governance issues.

In addition, Nicholas proactively applies his experience litigating bankruptcy disputes to help clients manage and prepare for potential insolvencies and other situations involving distressed entities or assets, including, for example, structuring transactions and enterprises to minimize bankruptcy-related risks and negotiating and drafting related agreements and organic documents.

Before joining the Firm, Nicholas was a bankruptcy associate in the Chicago office of Jenner & Block LLP, a law clerk for the Judge Timothy A. Barnes of the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and later a bankruptcy and restructuring associate in the Chicago office of Greenberg Traurig LLP.