Armstrong Teasdale LLP issued the following announcement on Jan. 12.
Armstrong Teasdale has added 13 associates across practice groups and offices nationwide, including in Philadelphia, Denver, Kansas City and St. Louis. The new class of associates includes Onalee Chappeau, Courtney Chen, Skyler Davenport, Kevin Gale, Peter Jochens, Sydney Johnson, Chris Katsantonis, Dana Kramer, Nick Slovikoski, Kyle Summerville, Grace Taylor, Casey Waughn and Rachel Zender. They are among over 300 attorneys firmwide.
Chappeau (St. Louis) is an associate in Armstrong Teasdale’s Litigation practice group, where she represents clients in various civil litigation matters. She draws on her previous experience as a summer associate for the firm, legal extern at the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and legal intern at a federal prosecutor’s office. Chappeau is skilled in trial preparation, conducting legal research, organizing evidence, and drafting various legal documents including pretrial motions and legal memoranda.
Chen (St. Louis) joins the firm’s Litigation practice group, where she handles an array of disputes for clients in numerous industries. With prior experience as a summer associate at the firm and a legal extern at a major national corporation, she is adept at discovery, trial preparation and all aspects of case management. She is skilled at formulating strategy for introducing and combating prospective evidence to be introduced in trial, preparing witness examination questions, and drafting various legal documents, including pleadings, summary judgments and other motions.
Davenport (Kansas City) joins the Litigation practice group, where he handles disputes for a variety of clients. With a diverse background gained through positions at the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas and the Kansas Supreme Court, among others, he has experience researching and drafting judicial orders on topics including employment discrimination, product liability, contracts, oil and gas royalties, insurance coverage, class certification and civil rights. He has also served as a law clerk on multiple federal trials. During law school, he gained experience researching and drafting dispositive motions, appellate briefs, and discovery requests.
Gale (Philadelphia) joins the firm’s Intellectual Property practice group. He has experience handling patent prosecution and litigation support for clients across industries. Gale holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry, an M.B.A. and an undergraduate degree in toxicology, which, combined with his past pharmaceutical, biotechnology and financial industry experience, lend to his ability to analyze complex innovations for clients and secure or enforce comprehensive legal protections before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Jochens (St. Louis) is an experienced former process engineer. He joins the Intellectual Property practice group, focusing on the preparation and prosecution of patent applications in the mechanical and software arts. He has experience conducting prior art searches and patentability analyses, drafting and reviewing patent applications, and drafting Office Action responses. He also has experience with noninfringement and freedom-to-operate opinions and analyses.
Johnson (St. Louis) is a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property practice group, where she focuses on intellectual property litigation. Having held clerkships and worked as a summer associate, she gained invaluable experience that she brings to each client representation. Johnson’s past experience also extends to drafting motions, petitions, subpoenas, discovery requests and responses, as well as trial preparation and deposition, for a wide range of matters involving mass tort litigation, breach of contract and probate law.
Katsantonis (Philadelphia) is a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property practice group, focusing on drafting and prosecuting patent applications, freedom-to-operate evaluations, due diligence investigations, opinion work and litigation. While his background is in electrical engineering, he has experience counseling clients on all aspects of patent law, including applications in the electrical, mechanical and computer technology areas. Licensed to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Katsantonis formulates and communicates prosecution and litigation strategies with clients to ensure the robust protection of IP assets and entire portfolios.
Kramer (St. Louis) is an associate in Armstrong Teasdale’s Financial and Real Estate Services practice group. Having served as a judicial intern to the Hon. Erin Burlison in 11th Judicial Circuit Court, Kramer’s background covers a wide range of practice areas from personal injury and tort claims, to employment and family law. While working for a law firm in Jefferson City, she gained experience drafting petitions and discovery requests, and researching and writing legal memoranda on her findings, which were used in appellate briefs.
Slovikoski (Kansas City) joins Armstrong Teasdale’s Litigation practice group and is skilled at preparing memoranda advising on numerous issues, with a focus on complex commercial matters. He has experience drafting dispositive motions and supporting briefs regarding substantive and procedural issues in state and federal courts, and conducts factual investigations and discovery review. Slovikoski also has prior experience as a judicial intern for the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas and as a research assistant for a professor at KU Law.
Summerville (St. Louis) is an associate in Armstrong Teasdale’s Corporate Services practice group, with experience drafting asset purchase agreements and other complex documents for mergers and acquisitions of large and small businesses, researching and writing memoranda, and analyzing U.S. and international law to ensure clients maintain compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and similar legislation. His prior experience includes clerking for the Hon. Judge Ellen H. Ribaudo and the Hon. Judge Kristine Kerr, both in the 21st Judicial Circuit Court of Missouri.
Taylor (St. Louis) is a member of the firm’s Corporate Services practice group with a focus on tax, employee benefits and estate planning. She has experience counseling clients through all stages of becoming tax-exempt organizations, in addition to working with individuals and businesses in tax controversy matters before the Internal Revenue Service and Missouri Department of Revenue. She also assists employers in drafting, amending and implementing employee benefits programs, ensuring tax and ERISA compliance.
Waughn (St. Louis) joins the firm’s Litigation practice group bringing diverse experience gained through previous positions relating to public policy, as well as criminal and civil litigation. Her extensive knowledge of federal and state regulation, and trial experience gained through work at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Circuit Attorney’s Office of the City of St. Louis and in-house at a financial services company allows her to provide guidance to clients on mitigating risk and all aspects of the regulatory process, including trial. She is also deeply knowledgeable in data privacy matters and has published multiple articles, authored practice guides and presented to industry leaders on privacy issues.
Zender (Kansas City) is a member of the firm’s Financial and Real Estate Services practice group, focusing in finance and real estate, bankruptcy, corporate governance and tax law. A former banking professional with nine years of regulatory, consulting and private sector experience, Zender brings a unique depth of knowledge to each client representation. She has extensive knowledge of state and federal banking regulations, as well as lending and loan covenants, creditor/debtor rights, foreclosures and bankruptcy, real estate and probate law.
Original source can be found here.