Patrick practices in the areas of economic development, including public-private partnerships, infrastructure development, commercial transactions, banking, healthcare, and government regulation. He is admitted to practice law in both Kentucky and Ohio. Patrick has successfully represented clients in a variety of matters involving public-private partnerships, banking and public financing, infrastructure development and construction, and healthcare and insurance regulation. Prior to joining DBL Law, Patrick served as legal counsel to the Secretary of the Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet, where he oversaw capital projects, property management, procurement and financial management. In 2011 and 2012 Patrick served as Chief Deputy Attorney General to Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway. As Chief Deputy, Patrick was responsible for daily operations, including criminal and civil investigations and enforcement actions.

Patrick also manages Excel Title Services, LLC, a full service title company and wholly owned subsidiary of DBL Law.  Excel Title Services provides a fully array of title related services including title exams, title insurance, escrow and closing services, etc., for both commercial and residential markets.

Recently, Patrick Hughes was appointed to the Board of Northern Kentucky’s Life Learning Center. The Life Learning Center, a proud partner agency of the United Way, is a non-profit organization working with multiple community partners to take individuals who demonstrate commitment to stable employment and prepare them for careers through education, training, and life coaching. Patrick also serves on the Board of Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky, as a member of the Children, Inc. Capital Campaign Committee, and the Board of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. He is a former member of the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure.

Angela M. Gates is a partner practicing in the areas of banking and commercial, corporate and real estate law. Angie represents a wide array of lenders and borrowers, banking institutions, as well as profit and non-profit organizations, and has an extensive commercial loan practice. She is licensed to practice in both Kentucky and Ohio.

In her banking and commercial practice, Angie advises borrowers in bond transactions, asset based lending, commercial mortgage loans, bond loans, and issues opinion letters for borrowers. She acts as outside legal counsel to our valued institutional clients and frequently interacts with owners, directors and corporate officers within these organizations.  Her commercial loan practice includes collateralized loans, multi-party secured transactions, and complex financing.

In her corporate practice, Angie assists clients with mergers, acquisitions, corporate governance, compliance, buy-sell agreements, entity structuring, succession planning, as well as stock and asset acquisitions. Specific representative experience includes:

• Assisting in the acquisition of a regional engineering firm with over 100 employees and four office locations by a national competitor
• Advising in the acquisition of the business assets of a rigging contractor specialized in heavy industrial construction, generating an annual revenue of more than $20 million. Additional factors to the acquisition included warehousing agreements and unions.
• Assisting hospitals and larger physician networks in practice mergers, physician acquisitions, and facility purchases and sales

In her commercial real estate practice, Angie regularly represents clients in real estate acquisitions, development and financing transactions. She regularly reviews opinion letters for HUD transactions, low income housing credits, and new market tax credits, on behalf of the borrower. She is experienced in the complex financing of large scale health care facilities, corporate developments, and office buildings. Angie is also a licensed agent of Excel Title Services, the firm’s wholly owned title company, offering efficient and cost-effective customization on complex and large commercial transactions. Products and services available include title insurance, title exams, uniform commercial code and litigation searches, closings, multi-state transactions, escrow services, documents recording, construction loan draws and land surveys.

Angie is an active participant with the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), the Commercial Real Estate Development Association (NAIOP), and Commercial Real Estate Women, Inc. of Greater Cincinnati (CREW). She resides in Erlanger with her husband and two sons.

Kayla Campbell is an associate attorney practicing primarily in the area of Civil Litigation. She first joined DBL as a summer associate in 2016 and is based in the firm’s Louisville office.

Kayla comes to us from the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville where she graduated magna cum laude in 2017. During law school she served in various student leadership positions with the Student Bar Association, and as representative on law school’s Honor Council. She was the Notes Editor for the Journal of Animal and Environmental Law and a pupil member of the Louis D. Brandeis American Inn of Court. She also participated in externships at both the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky and the Office of the Commonwealth Attorney.

Prior to attending law school, Kayla graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor Degree from the University of Kentucky in Political Science. While at UK she spent time working in local politics as an intern with the Kentucky General Assembly.

Kayla is a native of, and currently resides in Louisville, KY.

Aaron Caskey is an associate practicing in the commercial banking, real estate and corporate law practice groups.  Aaron joined Dressman Benzinger LaVelle as a summer associate in May of 2013 and is based in the firm’s Crestview Hills office.

Aaron obtained his J.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 2014, where he graduated summa cum laude.  Upon graduation, he was elected Order of the Coif and also served as Senior Staff Editor of the Kentucky Law Journal.

Prior to attending the University of Kentucky College of Law, Aaron obtained a B.A. in History and Political Science from Northern Kentucky University, where he graduated magna cum laude. He was a member of the Northern Kentucky University Honors Program and received the H. Lew Wallace Outstanding Student in History Award, a memorial award presented to an outstanding history major.  While at Northern Kentucky University, Aaron was an intern in the Capitol Operations Department of the Office of the Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Aaron, an Eastern Kentucky native, currently resides in Cold Spring, Kentucky.

James A. Dressman III is the Managing Partner/CEO of Dressman Benzinger LaVelle psc. In addition to managing the firm, Jim has an active legal practice.  He represents profit and nonprofit entities and individuals in financial transactions, business mergers and asset acquisitions and sales, and real estate acquisitions, and simple and complex development projects. He also provides guidance for entity structuring, reorganization, owner and employee buy/sell arrangements and management and owner succession. Jim advises clients with general business and tax matters, estate planning, and probate matters.

Jim has successfully guided clients through a number of significant matters:

• The land acquisition, development, leasing, and financing of various real estate developments including the Kentucky Speedway motor sports complex.
• Various transactions in the healthcare industry including bond financing, physician practice mergers and acquisitions.
• Diverse joint ventures, sales, mergers and acquisitions in other industries including the sale of a sports complex, the strategic purchase by an industrial valve sales and manufacturing company of an industrial valve servicing company, the acquisition by a specialty paper company of a New England division and the site acquisition and construction of franchised restaurants.
• The restructuring and succession planning for family owned businesses and related estate planning.
• Charitable giving, including establishing charitable remainder trusts.

Jim has extensive and varied experience in representing financial institutions in all types of financing transactions and in troubled asset workouts. Jim’s experience includes the structuring of financing of a floating restaurant and entertainment complex with U.S. Coast Guard registered vessels on a publicly owned leasehold; and its eventual unwind through bankruptcy with no loss to the financial institutions he represented.

Jim has always been active in the community and has served on a number of charitable and community boards. He resides in Edgewood, Kentucky with his wife and has three children and nine grandchildren. He serves on the board of the Freestore Foodbank; Baptist Life Communities, Inc; Northern Kentucky Volunteer Lawyers, and the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Board of Advisors. Jim was appointed as a Kenton County representative to the Tri-County Economic Development Corporation (Tri-ED). Jim also annually leads a mission trip to Jacob’s Ladder, a residential community in Jamaica for severely disabled adults operated by Mustard Seed Communities, where his team has been constructing new residencies.

Andrew C. Emmert is a partner in the real estate, corporate and business organizations and taxation practice groups at DBL Law. Mr. Emmert provides general counsel services to individuals and privately-held businesses in a wide range of industries, and to real estate owners, investors, tenants and developers.

Drew concentrates his practice in general business matters, real estate, probate and estate planning matters. His business practice focuses on all aspects of corporate, limited liability company and partnership law, including purchases and sales of businesses, business entity selection and formation, financing arrangements, contracts, commercial transactions, employment law and business succession planning. Clients benefit from Drew’s years of work experience in the financial markets, commercial lending and securities brokerage, as well as, his undergraduate degrees in accounting and finance.

Drew’s real estate practice focuses on acquisition, development and sales of commercial real property, including retail, multi-family, office and industrial projects. He has extensive experience in leasing, sale-leaseback transactions, tax deferred 1031 exchanges, zoning, construction contracts and challenges to real estate tax valuations. Drew also has represented purchasers of properties in foreclosure and redevelopment of distressed projects, including condominiums, retail and industrial projects. Additionally, Drew has represented both lenders and borrowers in troubled loan/workout situations, as well as, tenants and landlords regarding defaults under leases.

In 2007, Drew became a Board Certified Specialist in Business, Commercial and Industrial Real Property Law by the Ohio State Bar Association (OSBA). Also in 2007, Drew was appointed by the President of the OSBA to the Real Property Law Specialty Board. He was recently appointed to his second term on the Real Property Law Specialty Board, which is charged with identifying the competency areas for real estate specialists, review and approval of test applicants and preparation and administration of exams to lawyers seeking real estate specialist certification.

Drew is AV Peer Review Rated, the highest rating given to lawyers by Martindale-Hubbell, and has held this rating since 1998, his first year of eligibility.

Erin Shaughnessy is an associate attorney practicing primarily in the area of Civil Litigation. She first joined DBL Law as a summer associate in 2018.

Erin received her Juris Doctor from the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville where she graduated magna cum laude in 2019. During law school she was the Senior Articles Editor for the University of Louisville Law Review and a member of the Robert F. Wagner Labor and Employment Law Moot Court Team. She also participated in externships with Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, at Signature HealthCARE, and the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office.

Prior to attending law school, Erin graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Murray State University. At Murray State she served in various leadership positions with the Student Government Association, including as Chief Justice of the Judicial Board.

Erin is a native of, and currently resides in Louisville, KY.

Andrew is a Senior Title Attorney working in the firm’s Real Estate practice group and its affiliated company, Excel Title Services. He brings a wealth of experience in handling real estate title matters and closings, and is experienced in resolving various real estate matters.

Andrew obtained his law degree from the University of Dayton, graduating cum laude. He holds a masters degree in City and Regional Planning from The Ohio State University and a bachelor’s degree in History from Wittenberg University. Andrew is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association.

Ryan M. Whitaker will be practicing in the business organization and taxation, estate and succession planning and corporate law sections within the firm. Ryan received his J.D. from the University of Cincinnati in 2015 and his Bachelor of Business Administration (Finance major, Marketing minor) also from UC in 2012. Ryan comes to the firm after practicing at a local boutique tax law firm.

Ryan serves as the Secretary for the Tax Section of the Cincinnati Bar Association, and is also on the planning committee for the Southwestern Ohio Tax Institute. In his free time, Ryan enjoys hiking, backpacking, and recreational soccer.