Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP is pleased to announce that Chase Dressman, Matthew Lawless, Masashi Okuyama and Thomas Stasi have joined the firm’s Cincinnati office.

Chase Dressman is an associate in the firm’s Litigation practice group. He practices in all facets of civil litigation and has extensive experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal court. Dressman received his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was a member of the Kentucky Law Journal, Moot Court, and the National Moot Court Team, and his B.A., cum laude, with honors, from Xavier University.

Matthew Lawless is an associate in the firm’s Litigation practice group. Prior to joining Taft, he clerked for the Honorable Richard A. Griffin on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the Honorable Joseph H. McKinley, Jr. on the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Lawless received his J.D. from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law – Bloomington, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Federal Communications Law Journal and was a quarterfinalist in the Sherman Minton Moot Court Competition, his M.A. from Texas Tech University and his B.A. from Michigan State University.

Masashi Okuyama is an associate in the firm’s Business & Finance practice group. He focuses his practice on general corporate, immigration and employment matters for Japanese companies doing business in the United States and American companies either doing or planning to do business in Japan. Okuyama received his J.D. from the University of Dayton School of Law and his B.S. from State University of New York at Albany.

Thomas Stasi is an associate in the firm’s Business & Finance practice group. He assists both private and public companies with a variety of corporate transactions, including M&A and offerings of securities. He also focuses his practice on counseling start-up companies through all stages of business development, including formation, seed funding, venture capital, and exit transactions. Stasi received his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School, where he interned for Chief Judge Jennifer B. Coffman on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and his B.A. from Duke University.