Sarah Beth Wilson

Sarah Beth Wilson is a partner with Phelps Dunbar LLP in Jackson, Miss., where she focuses her practice on bankruptcy and reorganization, business and litigation, and leads the firm’s Bankruptcy and Creditor’s Rights group. She assists clients with complex transactions, financings and restructuring projects both in and out of court. Ms. Wilson is Board Certified in Business Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification and specializes in the representation of direct and institutional lenders, private equity and other key stakeholders in large commercial transactions, unique and distressed asset acquisitions and dispositions, real estate development projects involving special situations financings, intercreditor and interlender issues, collateral rights and priorities enforcement, and secured creditor and bankruptcy rights. She regularly advises committees, boards, lending institutions and entities on issues impacting the structuring of real estate and business transactions involving secured and unsecured financing facilities. Handling a wide range of real estate, business and asset sales transactions, Ms. Wilson’s practice involves structuring and negotiating agreements involving real estate acquisition, development and operation. She also has experience negotiating and litigating lien perfection and priority disputes in the context of commercial real property, and she is a licensed issuer of real property title insurance policies. Ms. Wilson recently completed a term as chairman of the Board of Banking Review for the State of Mississippi, a position to which she was elected after being appointed by Gov. Phil Bryant and unanimously confirmed by the senate. She continues to serve in legislative and policy advising roles, including in her role on the Bank Attorneys Committee of the Mississippi Bankers Association, a position to which she has been appointed every year since 2018 by each incoming president of the state’s banking association. She also played a leading role on the official transition team for Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch from her prior office as Treasurer for the State of Mississippi. Ms. Wilson’s practice spans all industries and has led her to represent clients in such sectors as banking, aviation, health, oil and gas, agricultural, telecommunications and information technologies, construction, real estate and retail. She also serves as a member of the firm’s Operations Committee. Ms. Wilson received ABI’s Asset Sale of the Year Award for 2023, is rated AV-Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell, and has been listed in Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers. She received her B.B.A. in accounting and economics cum laude in 2007 from Millsaps College, and her J.D. magna cum laude in 2010 from Mississippi College School of Law.