Amanda Bear

A life-long resident of Kentucky, Amanda attended Morehead State University as an undergraduate, and received her JD from Chase College of Law in 2005. Amanda has extensive experience in both juvenile and adult criminal cases, including representing kids in adult court and death penalty cases.

Before going into private practice, she was the Managing Attorney of Lexington Children’s Law Center, a non-profit legal organization providing legal advocacy to youth. While at CLC, she honed her skills on education law and school discipline issues. In addition to providing direct legal representation to youth, Amanda was a registered lobbyist and educator.

Amanda spent seven years as the Director of the Central Region of the National Juvenile Defender Center (now Gault Center), where she was involved with training and education on juvenile justice initiatives on a local, state, and national level. Her legislative advocacy resulted in positive changes in the law regarding expungements for juvenile cases and transfer to adult court.

Prior to joining CLC, she spent over ten years with the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy (DPA), as a Staff Attorney, Juvenile Specialist, and then as the Directing Attorney for the Maysville and Nicholasville Trial Offices. After she was threatened with contempt of court early in her career for speaking out against the use of excessive force by police officers against her fourteen-year-old female client, Amanda received the In re Gault Award at the 2008 DPA Annual Conference. While at DPA, Amanda was actively involved in the education and training of new attorneys. She spent two years as an Adjunct Professor at Morehead State University in both the Sociology and Legal Studies Departments. When she isn’t protecting the rights of kids at work, she stays busy protecting herself from her two teenage boys and two dogs.