E. Chase Dressman

Legal services that Chase routinely provides for clients include:

• Advising companies on managing compliance, remediation, and liability considerations for emerging contaminants such as PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, including with respect to responding to EPA and government requests for information (e.g., CERCLA 104(e) requests), remedial investigation and mitigation efforts, contractual and transactional considerations, and civil/administrative litigation;
• Drafting and negotiating complex chemical manufacturing and distribution agreements, including contract manufacturing/toll formulation agreements, chemical distribution and warehousing agreements, waste transport and disposal contracts, environmental indemnities, environmental liability transfers, voluntary cleanup agreements, Brownfield redevelopment agreements, and FIFRA data compensation and data development contracts and settlements;
• Leading teams in corporate and real estate transactions to manage environmental due diligence and negotiate environmental representations, warranties, indemnities, and other provisions of purchase and sale agreements;
• Advising clients regarding compliance with state and federal environmental laws and regulations (e.g., CERCLA, TSCA, RCRA, EPCRA, FIFRA);
• Voluntary remediation and Brownfield redevelopment, including under Ohio’s Voluntary Action Program (VAP);
• Preparing for, responding to, and defending regulatory inspections and enforcement actions, including by performing environmental and compliance audits of company facilities and operations under federal and state audit/self-disclosure policies; and
• Prosecuting and defending private party lawsuits involving environmental claims (including litigation under CERCLA and equivalent state laws). As an experienced litigator, Chase has represented clients at trial in federal and state court, in arbitration proceedings, and during administrative proceedings (including EPA and state civil enforcement proceedings).

A significant portion of Chase’s practice involves representing companies in the pesticide industry, including manufacturers and distributors of agricultural, conventional, and anti-microbial pesticide products. He assists clients on a daily basis with legal issues under FIFRA (the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act) related to the production, packaging, labeling, distribution, marketing, and development of pesticide products, including data compensation disputes and arbitrations. He has drafted and negotiated hundreds of contracts for companies in the pesticide industry, including contract manufacturing, toll formulation, repackaging, data sharing/development, and supplemental distribution agreements, and advises companies on all facets of compliance with federal and state pesticide regulations, including product registration, labeling, record-keeping, transportation, disposal, and data compensation issues. Chase has defended dozens of civil and criminal claims by EPA and state agencies related to alleged violations of pesticide laws.

In addition to leading Taft’s Cincinnati Environmental practice group, Chase is a leader in his community. He was named a Forty Under 40 honoree by the Cincinnati Business Courier in 2023, and has been recognized in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers (2022) for Environmental law, as an Ohio Super Lawyers Rising Star in the field of Environmental Litigation since 2015 and by Best Lawyers “Ones to Watch” since 2021. He served as the chair of the Cincinnati Bar Association’s Environmental Law Committee for three separate terms and served as the 2018 chair and 2017 vice-chair of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce’s Regional Youth Leadership Program, which teaches local high school students leadership skills during monthly seminars. He also served as chair and co-chair of Law Day for Regional Youth Leadership from 2011–2019. Chase is an alumnus of Leadership Northern Kentucky (Class of 2013) and Cincinnati Academy of Leadership for Lawyers (Class 21). He frequently writes and presents on significant environmental matters and issues.

He currently serves as the general counsel for the Greater Cincinnati Hazmat Unit, where he provides legal counsel to local fire, emergency, and other first responders.

Chase received his undergraduate degree, cum laude, with honors, from Xavier University and earned 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 was selected to and competed on the National Moot Court team. Chase is a life-long resident of the Greater Cincinnati area, where he lives with his wife and children.