Jamila Willis

JAMILA is a partner with DLA Piper and chairs its New York office Restructuring Group. She also co-chairs the firm’s Consumer Goods and Retail Subsector and focuses her practice in the area of financial and corporate restructuring. She has extensive experience in complex restructurings across industries and represents debtors, distressed investors, sponsors, purchasers of distressed assets and other interested parties in a wide range of restructuring and insolvency matters, including chapter 11 and 15 cases and cross-border insolvency proceedings. In addition, she represents debtors, secured creditors, acquirers and distressed investors in distressed asset sales and acquisitions, including UCC Article 9 foreclosure sales and § 363 sales. She also advises firm clients in liquidations, corporate wind-downs, bankruptcy litigation and other bankruptcy-related matters.

Jamila was recognized by the New York Law Journal as a “Rising Star” in 2019, and The M&A Advisor named her an Emerging Leader in 2019. In addition, Crain’s New York Business listed her as a Notable Woman in Law in 2020, and in 2021, she received Bloomberg Law’s “They’ve Got Next: The 40 Under 40” award. Within her firm, she chairs the New York Office’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and in 2020, she was elected by her partners to serve on the firm’s policy committee.

Jamila has long been dedicated to pro bono and public-interest work, beginning years before her career as a restructuring attorney. She worked as a human rights attorney at International Bridges to Justice, a public-interest organization dedicated to ending criminal investigatory torture by building legal aid systems in developing nations. Today, she focuses her pro bono work on human rights and the development of legal systems throughout the world. In her community, she serves on the board of the Harlem Tech Fund, a nonprofit serving Harlem community members through education and career support in STEM, innovation and entrepreneurship, and on the Junior Advisory Board of Her Justice, a nonprofit providing pro bono legal services to women living in poverty in New York City. In addition, she is chairwoman emeritus of High Water Women, a nonprofit organization focused on providing financial literacy and educational trainings to women and youth in the New York area.