The POWER 30: Adine Momoh

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Sometimes debtors try to give assets to a spouse, other relative, business partner or nonprofit. Sometimes they pay some creditors and not others. In bankruptcy language, those may be fraudulent conveyances or preferential transfers.

But sometimes there are many preferential transfers or fraudulent conveyances involving multiple creditors, for example, in a big bankruptcy following the collapse of a Ponzi scheme. Momoh has represented a client in such a case that commenced more than a decade ago, where she has been the sole bankruptcy attorney.

Momoh also is the head of Stinson’s Minneapolis Estate and Trust Litigation Group. Those are complicated cases and frequently involve wealth transfer disputes among family members. Sometimes the beneficiary of the trust believes others are not fulfilling their fiduciary duties and other times an interested person wants to be included in the trust. Sometimes a corporate fiduciary is questioned.

Momoh is known for her no-nonsense approach to cases. She advises clients on resolving their problems in a way that moves the ball forward. For instance, she once represented a farmer in an estate dispute worth $3.2 million and reached a favorable settlement for the client, going from a 20/80 bargaining position to an 80/20 bargaining position in favor of the client.

Momoh is also very active in professional organizations, particularly around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Momoh was the 100th president of the Hennepin County Bar Association in 2018, when she became the youngest lawyer and first Black woman to head that bar. She made diversity, equity and inclusion a theme of her presidency.

She is alumni fellow of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, a national group of more than 350 members, including in-house legal counsel and managing executive partners at law firms.

Momoh is also on the board of directors of the National Federal Bar Association and the FBA Minnesota Chapter. For two years, Momoh chaired the FBA’s Younger Lawyers Division, where she initiated a call-to-action in response to the murder of George Floyd and the civil unrest that followed.

Ultimately she led a national, annual initiative called the Step Up Pro Bono Challenge, which asks FBA members to complete 50 hours of pro bono work focused on issues that disproportionately impact marginalized communities. It also has a younger lawyer’s section, which includes a training program so that members can provide pro bono services. Momoh points out that the BIPOC community has been hit especially hard by problems highlighted by the pandemic including housing, voting rights and criminal justice reform.

In 2021, Momoh has focused on developing a training program to equip younger attorneys with the tools to address these issues through pro bono work. It also provides an extensive list of opportunities for pro bono work. A separate Step Up Pro Bono Challenge is conducted by the Minnesota judiciary, bar association and civil legal aid.

Other organizations promoting diversity in the profession include Twin Cities Diversity in Practice and the affinity bar associations. Momoh serves on the board of the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers.

“No one is working on this alone. It is a group effort,” Momoh said.