Okorie Kalu
Partner
Bio:
Okorie Kalu is a Partner in PUNUKA Attorneys & Solicitors heading the Insolvency & Business Restructuring and Training Departments of the firm. PUNUKA has offices in Abuja FCT, Lagos and Asaba.
A bilingual (French-English) legal practitioner, with an LLM in Business Law. He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2004.
He is a Fellow of INSOL International and a member of the III NextGen in addition to his practical vast experience in insolvency & business restructuring practice in Nigeria, in court and out of court commercial negotiations and dispute resolutions, commercial and criminal litigation, including cross border related insolvency matters.
He has held/is holding several appointments or advised severally as Liquidator or more recently as Administrator and as CVA Nominee/Supervisor of companies. He is regularly and actively engaged in high profile commercial disputes, receiverships, winding up, debt recoveries, business recovery/insolvency litigation and or out of court restructuring negotiations.
He is a Fellow of and General Secretary of the Council of the Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria (BRIPAN), since 2017.
He chairs her Training Committee and acts as a facilitator in restructuring and insolvency related training modules for BRIPAN and other professional bodies or regulatory institutions, including the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Turnaround Management Association (TMA) Nigerian chapter, INSOL International, Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB), the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), the Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), to name a few.
Until May 2021, he acted as 2nd Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association - Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL) Committee on Banking, Finance and Insolvency. Effective May 7, 2021, he is Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association - Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL) Maiden Committee on Restructuring & Insolvency
In 2017, as 14 business indicators were identified for purpose of legislative reform in the Doing Business in Nigeria Project by PEBEC (in collaboration with the World Bank WB), he was appointed as Team lead for the business indicator area of “Resolving Insolvency” for the NBA-SBL collaboration with the Office of the Vice President of Nigeria which set up the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) to draft an Omnibus Bill reforming various laws to improve ease of doing business in Nigeria.
The above process also influenced some recommendations made by PEBEC to the Corporate Affairs Commission in its reform of the 1990 Nigerian Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) leading to the new CAMA 2020 assented by the Nigerian President into law on the 7th August, 2020.
He is the Head, Insolvency Faculty of the Nigerian Bar Association- Institute of Continuous Legal Education (NBA-ICLE). He also holds several appointments in INSOL International Committees. He is regularly invited to speak at various fora on other commercial transactions issues such as dispute resolution, commercial negotiations, multi-creditor workouts, netting and set offs, advertising, etc.
He has contributed, co-authored or authored papers or book chapter in the area insolvency and mining.