KAPLAN JOHNSON ABATE & BIRD - Key Persons
Andrea primarily focuses her practice on complex business litigation within highly regulated industries, including healthcare, telecommunications, and financial services. She has represented clients, both companies and individuals, in connection with government and internal investigations as well as commercial disputes.
Andrea also has experience with transactional and general corporate matters, including commercial real estate transactions, corporate governance issues, and business entity formation.
Prior to joining the firm, Andrea practiced in both the corporate and commercial litigation practice groups at a large regional law firm. Andrea is a Louisville native and graduated first in her class from the University of Louisville Law School.
Andrew focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, commercial real estate, corporate finance and lending, and general corporate law matters. He enjoys working with financial institutions, manufacturers, energy and coal mining companies, service-industry businesses and entrepreneurs in their business transactions, including formation of entities, obtaining debt and equity financing, selling and acquiring businesses, and day-to-day matters such as leases, commercial contracts and real estate acquisitions.
Andrew is the author of Kentucky Secured Transactions Under Revised Article 9 of the UCC (Data Trace Publishing Company 2001, updated annually). He was previously a member of the Greenebaum Doll & McDonald law firm. Andrew's clients value his thoughtful approach and ability to anticipate and avoid problems before they arise.
Brian's practice is focused on complex insolvency-related matters, including workouts, restructuring, bankruptcy, receiverships and bankruptcy litigation. Brian has represented borrowers, lenders, creditors' committees, examiners, trustees, receivers, avoidance action defendants and asset purchasers. In addition, he represents corporate clients in commercial litigation in state and federal courts.
Prior to joining the firm, Brian was a partner at a large regional law firm for over ten years (2007-2018). Before moving to Louisville, Brian was an attorney at Jenner & Block LLP in Chicago (2000-2007).
Chuck's practice focuses on appellate litigation, class and derivative actions, and complex commercial matters in courts across the nation. He has represented both publicly and privately held companies, directors, officers, and shareholders both at the trial and appellate levels in a variety of matters. These include cost-of-insurance-increase and failure-to-decrease class actions, data-breach class actions, trade secret and business tort litigation, restrictive covenant suits, and shareholder derivative actions. Chuck has practiced in courts all over the country, including multiple U.S. Courts of Appeals, the Kentucky Supreme Court, and the Kentucky Court of Appeals. Before entering legal practice, Chuck served in the United States Air Force. He also spent four years working as a linguist for the FBI, where he was involved in a variety of criminal, counterintelligence, and cybersecurity investigations. Prior to joining the firm, Chuck served as a law clerk for the Honorable John K. Bush of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Education
University of Louisville School of Law, Louisville, Kentucky
J.D.
Charity began her bankruptcy and commercial litigation practice with a boutique firm in Atlanta where she focused on representing small Chapter 11 business debtors and Chapter 7 trustees in bankruptcies and related litigation. When she relocated with her family to Louisville, she practiced as a creditors' rights attorney before expanding her practice to include representation of Chapter 7, 9, 11, and 12 debtors, unsecured creditors' committees, trustees, and creditors in financial workouts, bankruptcy proceedings and bankruptcy litigation. Charity also has extensive experience representing companies, lenders, and individuals in collection matters, lender liability suits, foreclosure actions, lien rights, and other general commercial litigation. Charity's clients value her problem-solving skills and her ability to take charge in navigating them through difficult circumstances.
Clark Johnson's practice focuses on complex business disputes and class action litigation. Mr. Johnson represents business entities, directors, officers and shareholders in a wide range of litigation. He has litigated and tried corporate governance and control matters, lender liability claims, shareholder disputes and derivative actions, restrictive covenant suits, securities and consumer fraud cases, construction matters and franchise disputes, among others. He has litigated cases in twenty-three states.
Examples of Mr. Johnson's class action work include defending life insurance companies in cost of insurance increase and failure to decrease cases, vanishing premium cases, modal premium cases, DAC tax cases, effective-date cases and interest crediting cases. He has extensive experience in class litigation concerning fixed index annuities and universal life insurance. In addition, Mr. Johnson has litigated FLSA collective actions involving several difference industries, ERISA class actions, and state consumer protection act and California UCL and elder abuse matters. Mr. Johnson also has defended class actions against mortgage companies involving payoff statement fees and predatory lending, and TILA claims against credit card issues.
Examples of Mr. Johnson's experience in securities-related litigation include the defense of a number of securities fraud class actions and shareholder suits, and prosecution and defense of FINRA arbitrations. In addition, Mr. Johnson has significant experience in representing issuers, officers and others in SEC investigations and enforcement actions, and in internal corporate investigations.
Chip concentrates his practice in the areas of real estate and corporate law, including property and business sale and acquisitions, development, start-up ventures, finance, and government relations. He has broad experience in business and real estate as a private practice attorney, in-house counsel, business owner, and equity investor in entrepreneurial ventures.
Chip was previously the National Real Estate Manager and Franchise Development Director at Yum! Brands Inc. and started his career as an attorney at the Woodward, Hobson & Fulton law firm. His clients benefit from his significant experience as an entrepreneur and ability to efficiently deliver legal and business advice.
Jon brings more than 40 years of experience in media law and First Amendment cases to the firm. Over that time, Jon has served as lead counsel on many of the most important First Amendment cases throughout the commonwealth. He also has been the most prominent attorney handling disputes under the Kentucky Open Records Act and Open Meetings Act-laws which he helped to draft. Jon also has extensive commercial and employment litigation experience.
Jon has experience litigating in a wide range of federal and state courts. He has argued dozens of appellate cases in Kentucky and federal appellate courts, including numerous appearances before the Supreme Court of Kentucky and multiple different U.S. Courts of Appeals. He also has substantial experience in state and federal trial courts around the country.
In addition to his law practice, Jon remains active in the community. Jon currently chairs the Board of Directors of the Jewish Community of Louisville. He has received numerous community awards, including the National Council of Jewish Women's David Richart Award for outstanding service to the welfare of Kentucky's children, as well as a Department of Public Advocacy and the Louisville-Jefferson County Public Defender Corporation's pro bono service award for his support of the constitutional rights of the poor and needy of Kentucky. He also is the only non-journalist to have been inducted into the Kentucky journalism Hall of Fame.
Michael is a litigator and advisor in the areas of business and fiduciary litigation and health care law. He represents all manner of business entities in litigating and resolving commercial disputes before courts and administrative agencies. In addition, Michael devotes a substantial part of his practice to matters in the health care industry, representing health care providers in a diverse array of matters including regulatory and compliance advice, government investigation and audits, and before licensure boards.
Michael is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Brandeis School of Law. After law school, he clerked for a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Prior to joining the firm, Michael was a partner at a large regional law firm.
Education
Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky
J.D. - 2004
Rick is an associate with experience in complex commercial matters, media, and appellate litigation. Prior to joining the firm, Rick clerked for the Honorable H. Brent Brennenstuhl in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. He graduated magna cum laude from the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, University of Louisville. During law school, he served as the Executive Editor and Online Content Editor of the University of Louisville Law Review.