Eileen Sethna

From her first career in the hotel business to her current position as a partner with Levenfeld Pearlstein, Eileen Sethna is known for prioritizing the client experience and maintaining a hospitality ethos as much as her skills as a lawyer. As a rare hybrid banking and finance lawyer who can service a credit from origination to disposition, Eileen is a transactional lawyer with the training of a federal trial litigator.

Incoming chair of Levenfeld Pearlstein’s Financial Services & Restructuring Group, Eileen is a champion for women in the legal profession, as well as women who are leaders in the community and charitable endeavors. She empowers women colleagues and invites women into positions of leadership whenever possible.

In her professional practice, Eileen is a trusted adviser to banks, financial institutions, hedge funds, real estate investors, and business owners. Given her experience representing both lenders and borrowers, clients lean on her vast wealth of knowledge and experience in the industry.

Eileen listens to her clients to determine a strategic approach that will achieve their specific needs and goals. She guides them through underwriting, diligence, structuring, transactions, reorganizations, workouts, and other matters of insolvency. Often dealing with multifaceted and difficult matters, Eileen’s breadth and depth of knowledge and her client-first approach has helped clients successfully navigate diverse challenges.

Holding tight to the belief that service is what defines true advocacy, when she’s not counseling lenders or borrowers, Eileen is committed to the important missions of Misericordia, serving on its Advisory and Women’s Boards, and to Special Olympics of Illinois, where she serves on the Board of Directors. Advocating for children and adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities is both her joy and privilege.

Eileen was recently recognized by Crain’s Chicago Business in 2020 as one of the city’s “Notable Women Lawyers,” for her success in steering clients through the deluge of reorganizations and other financial matters stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as her commitment to serving the community. In 2019, Eileen was recognized by Crain’s Chicago Business as a “Notable Gen X Leader in Law.”