Adine Momoh

ADINE is an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota and actively represents the U.S. in more than 100 bankruptcy cases under chapters 7, 11, 12 and 13, as well as adversary proceedings. She also is recognized as a national leader on the issue of dischargeability of student loans in bankruptcy. After nearly 15 years in private practice, she now leads the bankruptcy work for the District in its Civil Division, serving as its lead and primary bankruptcy attorney. She also handles various affirmative and defensive matters for the U.S., such as civil rights enforcement and fraud. Previously, she was an equity partner at Stinson LLP, where she co-chaired its national Estates and Trusts Litigation Practice Group and regularly represented clients in matters involving bankruptcy appeals, Ponzi scheme defense, cash collateral, DIP financing, fraudulent conveyance, preferential transfers and other avoidance actions. For more than 12 years, she defended a national bank in the Petters Co. Inc. Ponzi scheme. She also defended “net winners” (individuals and a business) in separate fraudulent conveyance matters brought by the SIPA trustee in the Bernie Madoff bankruptcy

Adine is a frequent writer and lecturer, and for over six years she has co-authored a chapter on “Contested Motions and Adversary Proceedings” for the Minnesota Bankruptcy Deskbook. She is named in Lawdragon 500’s Leading U.S. Bankruptcy and Restructuring Lawyers and in the POWER30 for Business Litigation by Minnesota Lawyer, has been recognized as a “Nation’s Best” Law Firm Leader by Lawyers of Color, is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America and of the American Bar Foundation, and received the Service to MWL Award by Minnesota Women Lawyers. In 2016, the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges selected her as a Blackshear Presidential Fellow. In 2023, she received the Attorney of the Year: Outstanding Service to the Profession Award from Minnesota Lawyer, having been recognized for initiating a national pro bono challenge called the StepUp Challenge in response to the tragic murder of George Floyd.

A daughter of immigrant parents from Sierra Leone, West Africa, Adine knew from the age of six that she wanted to be an attorney. Her parents instilled in her a strong work ethic and the importance of giving back. She currently serves on the Bankruptcy Practice Committee for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota, and she co-chairs the Government Powers Subcommittee of the ABA’s Business Bankruptcy Committee. She is a founding director of IWIRC’s Minnesota Network and an at-large director on IWIRC’s international board of directors. She also is a member of the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers and a member of the Hennepin County Bar Association and its Foundation, having served during the association’s Centennial in 2018-19 as its first Black woman president and youngest attorney president to date.