MoveMakers and NewsMakers for Oct. 20, 2026

Across MO

National law firm Armstrong Teasdale is pleased to announce the addition of eight first-year associates across practice groups and offices nationwide. The new class includes Brian Christian, Savannah Fisher, Jaylen Hankins, Francine Lawler, and Adam Thomas. They join first-year Associate Tiara Arties, who joined the firm earlier this year.

Arties (Kansas City) is a member of the Litigation practice group. She leverages her background in nursing and public health to advocate for clients in a range of disputes, particularly those involving health care and employment-related matters. Before attending law school, she was a registered nurse working in clinical and public health settings.

Christian (Kansas City) is a member of the Litigation group and has experience conducting legal research and document review, drafting motions, complaints, responses to motions, research memorandums, and summarizing depositions. Christian also gained experience as a judicial extern for the Hon. Roseann A. Ketchmark in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

Fisher (St. Louis) is a Litigation member who gained experience during law school through the Midwest Innocence Project’s Wrongful Conviction Clinic at Washington University, where she worked on cases for clients seeking to overturn their convictions. In addition, Fisher brings her background in criminology as an investigator in public defenders’ offices in California and Colorado, where she investigated hundreds of felony, misdemeanor, and juvenile cases.

Hankins (St. Louis) has joined the Litigation group after gained experience through a judicial externship for the Hon. Jorge Alonso in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, including conducting legal research and drafting memoranda on a variety of civil and criminal matters, observing courtroom proceedings, and examining case strategy and judicial reasoning. During law school Hankins also participated in the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic and completed an externship at the Saint Louis Zoo.

Lawler (St. Louis) is a member of the Corporate Services practice group focusing on general corporate matters, mergers and acquisitions, and antitrust matters. Through her experience in both private practice and in-house legal environments, including work with a Fortune 200 reinsurance company and an externship with a global provider of engineering and software solutions, Lawler developed an understanding of the intersection between legal considerations and business objectives and the practical role of legal counsel in achieving those goals.

Thomas (St. Louis) has joined the firm’s Intellectual Property practice group. He has experience drafting patent applications and responses to office action requests, performing patentability and freedom-to-operate searches, and conducting patent searches and registering trademarks. He has also conducted research and prepared legal memoranda for pending cases. During law school, Thomas was a Rule 13 attorney in the Mizzou Law Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic, providing free legal services to local entrepreneurs. He also served as a venture capital analyst at the Allen Angel Capital Education (AACE) Venture Fund, a student-run VC fund.