Amelia M. Adams

Amelia joined Stoll Keenon Ogden’s Lexington office as Counsel to the Firm, following a career including law practice, nonprofit administration, and banking administration. She belongs to the Bankruptcy & Financial Restructuring and Business Litigation practice groups.

Thoughtful in her approach to service, Amelia develops strategies to help clients feel confident about working through difficult financial and legal situations. She takes time to listen to clients and understand their perspectives, and she tends to case details with the same great care.

Amelia offers a wide variety of professional experience to any engagement. Prior to becoming part of the SKO team, Amelia engaged in private law practice focused in bankruptcy, debtor/creditor relations, and civil litigation, and she served as Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Tracey N. Wise, Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Amelia was also a vice president and senior trust officer at a large regional bank, where she was involved in estate and trust planning, investments, and banking administration.

As an active community volunteer, Amelia has significant experience with nonprofit management and board governance, honed through years of service with organizations including the Kentucky Bar Association, the Fayette County Bar Association, and the Junior League of Lexington.  She also served as Executive Director of the Kentucky Bar Foundation and IOLTA Fund, the statewide charitable arm of the Kentucky Bar Association.

For her many accomplishments, Amelia has earned a Martindale-Hubbell Distinguished℠ Peer-Review Rating and was named Outstanding Young Lawyer by the Fayette County Bar Association, among other distinctions.

Bankruptcy & Financial Restructuring: Amelia offers skilled guidance to all types of constituencies in insolvency situations. She has represented business and individual debtors, and also creditors, in chapter 7, 11, 12, and 13 bankruptcy cases. She has provided counsel to clients in reorganizations, liquidations, and out-of-court workouts, and her business clients have included banks, credit unions, hemp companies, manufacturers, marinas, trucking companies, coal companies, a gas jobber, a convenience store operator, cattle stockyards, a clothing retailer, commercial real estate companies, and a specialty shipping company. Combined with her training as a mediator, these experiences make her a strong asset in debtor-creditor relations matters.

Business Litigation: While Amelia has training in civil mediation, she is also prepared to help clients with highly intricate civil litigation disputes both in and outside the realm of bankruptcy. She has experience in adversary proceedings related to bankruptcy cases, as well as in state court litigation. She joins a team of trial attorneys at SKO that have earned the firm recognition by Benchmark Litigation as a leading litigation firm in Kentucky.

Representative engagements include:

• In re White Stallion Energy, LLC, et al. (Bankr. D. Delaware 2021): Represents equipment lessor and secured lender in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of coal mining companies
• In re Exide Holdings, Inc., et al. (Bankr. D. Delaware 2021): Represents supplier and preference defendant in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of battery manufacturer and related adversary proceeding
• OGGUSA, Inc. (f/k/a GenCanna Global USA, Inc.), et al. v. Southern Tier Hemp, LLC (Bankr. E.D. Kentucky 2021): Represents corporate defendant in business tort and contract action
• In re OGGUSA, Inc. (f/k/a GenCanna Global USA, Inc.), et al. (Bankr. E.D. Kentucky 2021):       Represented contract counterparty and administrative claimant in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of agriculture company primarily engaged in hemp production
• In re Murray Metallurgical Coal Holdings, LLC, et al. and Murray Metallurgical Holdings, LLC, et al. v. AHR Metals, Inc., et al. (Bankr S.D. Ohio 2021): Represents mechanic’s lienholder in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of coal mining entities and related adversary proceeding
• In re Shiloh Industries, Inc., et al. (Bankr. D. Delaware 2020): Represented equipment lessor and lease assumption counterparty in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of motor vehicle component manufacturer
• In re Americore Holdings, LLC, et al. (Bankr. E.D. Kentucky 2020): Represented principal secured creditor in multi-hospital chapter 11 bankruptcy cases
• In re Blackjewel, L.L.C., et al. (Bankr S.D. West Virginia 2020): Represented secured creditor in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of coal mining companies
• In re Hopedale Mining, LLC, et al. (Bankr. S.D. Ohio 2020):       Represented secured creditor and equipment lessor in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of coal mining companies
• In re BJ Services, LLC, et al. (Bankr. S.D. Texas 2020):       Represented trade creditor and member of Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of hydraulic fracturing and cementing providers
• Miller v. Wells (Bankr. E.D. Kentucky 2020): Represented secured creditor in consumer chapter 7 bankruptcy case and adversary proceeding disputing mortgage lien
• In re Nurses’ Registry & Home Health Corp. and Nurses’ Registry & Home Health Corp. v. Burwell (Bankr. E.D. Kentucky 2015): Represented debtor-in-possession home health provider in chapter 11 bankruptcy case and related adversary proceeding concerning use of cash collateral
• In re Licking River Mining, LLC, et al. (Bankr. E.D. Kentucky 2015):       Represented debtors in possession in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of coal mining companies
• In re Trinity Coal Corporation, et al. (Bankr. E.D. Kentucky 2014): Represented reorganized corporate debtor in contested matter concerning proposed rejection of executory contracts relating to coal mining operations under 11 U.S.C. § 365 during chapter 11 bankruptcy cases
• In re “Marina” (Bankr. E.D. Kentucky 2014): Represented debtors in possession in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of marina, restaurant, and lodging operator
• In re Eastern Livestock Co., LLC, et al. (Bankr. S.D. Indiana 2014): Represented multiple livestock markets as creditors in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases and as defendants in adversary proceedings involving preferential and fraudulent transfer claims; also represented livestock markets in Kentucky state and federal court civil litigation against secured creditor
• Higgason v. Porter (In re New) (Bankr. E.D. Kentucky 2013): Represented defendants in adversary proceeding in which chapter 7 trustee attempted to avoid an unrecorded land sale contract
• In re "Real Estate Company II" (Bankr. W.D. Kentucky 2013) and In re "Real Estate Company I" (Bankr. M.D. Tennessee 2013): Represented debtors in possession in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of commercial real estate entities, including during contested evidentiary confirmation hearings
• In re “Trucking Company” (Bankr. E.D. Kentucky 2013): Represented debtor in possession in chapter 11 bankruptcy case of trucking company
• In re Kentuckiana Medical Center LLC (Bankr. S.D. Indiana 2012):       Represented potential purchaser in presenting competing plan of reorganization in chapter 11 bankruptcy case of hospital
• In re Treasure Isles, Inc. (Bankr. E.D. Kentucky 2012):       Represented debtors in possession in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of restaurant operators
• In re Lykins Enterprises, Inc., et al. and Lykins Enterprises, Inc. v. Shreenathji, Inc., et al. (Bankr. E.D. Kentucky 2011): Represented debtors in possession in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of fuel jobber and convenience store operator and also as plaintiffs in related adversary proceeding concerning assumption or rejection of unexpired leases with c-store operators under 11 U.S.C. § 365
• In re Appalachian Fuels, LLC, et al. (Bankr. E.D. Kentucky 2011):       Represented Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of coal mining entities and as plaintiff in multiple adversary proceedings involving preferential and fraudulent transfer claims
• Dickinson v. Fister (Bankr. E.D. Kentucky 2010): Represented creditor in action to determine dischargeability of debt
• Represented secured creditors in various Kentucky state and federal court collections and real and personal property foreclosure actions
• Represented individual debtors in chapter 7, 11, and 13 bankruptcy cases