In an effort to shed some of its $6.3 billion debt load, telecommunications equipment company Avaya Inc. filed for bankruptcy Thursday in New York.

Kirkland & Ellis restructuring partner Jonathan Henes in New York has taken the lead representing Avaya in a Chapter 11 case that was sent to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil—a former senior litigation partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett who took the bench last year—before being reassigned to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stuart Bernstein.