Bench & Bar January/February 2026

WHO, WHAT, WHEN & WHERE

Prestonsburg attorney Ned Pillersdorf who has practiced criminal law for more than 44 years has become a regular commentator on Court TV discussing criminal law issues in the Commonwealth.

in the United States Navy, then as a federal prosecutor in the crimi nal section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., investigating and prosecuting federal civil rights crimes nationwide. He returned to Kentucky in March 2020 to work in the Office of Governor Andy Beshear, and then served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Kentucky from August 2021 until he joined Tachau Meek’s civil and commercial litigation practice in July 2025. He is currently working part-time while also undertaking a full time campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Sixth Congressional District, where he lives with his wife.

O’Bryan, Brown & Toner, PLLC , is pleased to welcome two new attorneys to their Louisville office. Alexander Drury focuses his practice on matters of insurance defense litigation with an emphasis on medical malpractice cases. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude , from Transylvania University. He went on to earn his law degree from the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude . While in law school, Drury served as an articles editor for the Kentucky Law Journal and as an officer for the Federalist Society and Christian Legal Society. Phillip Burress focuses his practice on matters involving insurance defense litigation and medical malpractice law. He graduated with Bachelor of Arts from the University of Louis

Stites & Harbison, PLLC , announces the addition of three attorneys to the firm. Two attorneys join the Louisville office: Collin M. Aycock and Jordan Butler . The Lexington office gains Jacob Baird . Aycock is a member of the intellectual property & technology service group. He earned his J.D. from the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, summa cum laude , in 2025. He served as the senior articles editor for the University of Lou isville Law Review , Volume 63, and published a Note entitled “A World Post-Warhol: What Is Fair use in Computer Code?” Prior to joining Stites & Harbison, he was a summer associate for the firm in 2023 and 2024. He also was a legal extern for the University of Louisville Office of Research and Innovation, 2024-25, and a law clerk for Caldwell Tanks, Inc., spring of 2024. Butler is a member of the torts & insurance practice service group. She earned her J.D. from the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, magna cum laude , in 2025. While in law school, she was vice president of the Black Law Students Association and a peer mentor for the First-Generation Peer Mentor Connection.

ville. Burress went on to earn his law degree from the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law. While in law school, he served as staff editor of the Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law and as an Ethics Committee member of the Moot Court Board. Dietz Family Law, PLLC , is pleased to announce that Nicole M. Massarone has joined as an asso ciate attorney. Massarone is from Lexington. She earned her undergraduate degree from Western Kentucky University and her J.D. from Salmon P. Chase College of Law. She is also a member of the KBA and the NKBA. Within the NKBA she is involved in the Young Lawyers Section, Women’s Section and the Family Law Section. She chose to pursue a career in family law to help families navigate the family law court system.

Prior to joining Stites & Harbison, Butler was a student attorney for the University of Louisville Law Eviction Defense Clinic, spring of 2025, and a student mediator for the University of Louisville Law Mediation Clinic, 2024-25. She also was a legal intern for Beam Sun tory, Inc., in 2023 and a summer associate for Stites & Harbison in 2023 and 2024. Baird is a member of the torts & insurance practice service group. He earned his J.D., summa cum laude and Order of the Coif, from the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law in 2024. In law school, he was a senior editor of the Kentucky Law Journal , Volume 112, and published a Note entitled “The End of an Aberration: Overturning Major League Baseball’s Century Old Antitrust Exemption.” He also was a member of the Moot Court National Team, fall of 2023. Prior to joining Stites & Harbison, Baird was a judicial law clerk for Judge Karen K. Caldwell, 2024-25, and participated in the firm’s summer associate program in 2023. Micah Legal has moved. Their new address is 535 West Second Street, Suite L-105, Lexington, KY 40508.

Gwin Steinmetz & Baird, PLLC , is very pleased to announce that Savanna Roberts has joined the firm’s long-term care practice group. Roberts is a native of Louisville and 2023 graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School.

Vince Aprile , who practices law with Lynch, Cox, Gilman and Goodman, P.S.C. , in Louisville, was recently re-appointed as a co-chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ (NACDL) Ethics Advisory Committee. Aprile has been in this posi tion since his appointment in 2010. The Ethics Advisory Committee gives NACDL members advice and counsel, alerting them to pitfalls, conflicts of interest, and potential violations of the rules of ethics and their Sixth Amendment duties. He is a past member of the Board of Director of NACDL (1983-85).

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