The firm added principals, counsel, and associates in commercial litigation, financial services, insurance, and corporate transactions, focusing on practice areas with the highest client demand.
Florham Park, NJ (July 7, 2026) - Bressler, Amery & Ross, P.C. is proud to announce that eight professionals have joined its Commercial Litigation, Financial Services, Insurance Regulatory, Insurance Defense, and Corporate and Commercial Transactions groups. These new team members are based in Fort Lauderdale, Florham Park, Dallas, Oklahoma City, and Austin.
These new hires reflect the firm’s strategic, client-focused growth. Bressler combines boutique practices and deep specialties within a full-service platform, ensuring each expansion aligns with market demand, and every expansion decision is made with that balance in mind. The new hires strengthen key capabilities in markets where the firm sees strong opportunities to better serve clients.
“We grow where it makes sense for our clients,” said Frederick K. Schoenbrodt, II, Management Committee Chair and New Jersey Office Managing Principal. “What sets Bressler apart is the combination of specialized, boutique-level expertise within each practice group and the full-service depth to support clients through any matter, in any market. These additions reflect that commitment. We are building with intention, and we are proud of what that approach continues to attract, including professionals who have been here before and chose to come back.”
The new additions include:
Tanya Queen rejoins the firm as a Principal in the Financial Institutions practice group in Fort Lauderdale, where she will focus her practice in Strategic Advisory and Compliance Counseling. Queen provides practical, business-focused regulatory, legal, and compliance counseling to broker-dealers, registered investment advisers, dual registrants, family offices, and other entities supporting the wealth management industry. Queen also represents clients before regulators and self-regulatory organizations, including the SEC and FINRA, as well as in litigation and arbitration.
Queen brings more than a decade of securities law experience in private practice, with regulators, and as Vice President and Senior Counsel at Goldman Sachs. Her clients rely on her responsiveness, solutions-oriented approach, and understanding of the operational and commercial realities of legal and regulatory compliance. Queen earned her J.D. cum laude from Florida State University College of Law and her B.S. from Florida State University.
Robert Travisano joins as Principal in the Commercial Litigation Group in the Florham Park office. Travisano’s practice is concentrated in complex contractual disputes, health care litigation, and business divorce matters. He is valued for his strategic approach and ability to navigate high-stakes disputes efficiently, and when resolution cannot be achieved through negotiation, he is a seasoned courtroom advocate with extensive trial and appellate experience.
Travisano has represented companies and individuals across a broad range of industries in contractual disputes, business tort litigation, and limited liability company, partnership, and shareholder conflicts. He has also represented foreign and domestic insurers in coverage disputes and healthcare providers in disputes with payors. His litigation experience spans trials, arbitrations, and appellate matters in New Jersey, New York, and federal courts. Travisano earned his J.D. St. John’s University School of Law and his B.A. from Villanova University.
Joel Sharp joins as a Principal in the Financial Institutions Group in Dallas, where his practice focuses on corporate and securities litigation, complex commercial disputes, fiduciary litigation, and arbitration. For more than 30 years, Sharp has represented businesses, investors, and other stakeholders in Texas state and federal courts across a wide range of complex business and investment-related matters, with clients spanning financial services, private equity, energy, healthcare, insurance, and real estate industries.
Sharp regularly represents clients in arbitrations before the AAA, FINRA, and private forums, and has handled matters in courts and arbitration venues across the country. He joins Bressler from the Dallas office of a major national firm, where he was a litigation partner. Sharp earned his J.D. cum laude from SMU Dedman School of Law and his B.A. in Economics from Princeton University.
Alise Johnson returns to the firm as a Principal in the Financial Institutions practice group in Fort Lauderdale. Johnson represents financial services firms, financial advisors, and corporations in litigation, arbitration, investigations, and regulatory matters before FINRA, the SEC, federal courts, and other state and local regulatory bodies. With more than 30 years of experience working in-house at an international broker-dealer and at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, she brings deep knowledge of the securities industry and a proven ability to deliver practical results.
Before her return to Bressler, Johnson served as Senior Trial Counsel for the SEC, where she led the investigation, litigation, negotiation, and trial of securities actions on the Commission's behalf, including first-chair roles in federal court. She also served in-house at UBS Financial Services as Associate General Counsel, including as Regional Counsel for the Southern Atlantic Region, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Johnson earned her J.D. with honors from the University of Florida and her B.A. with honors from Vanderbilt University.
Mary Jo Reich joins the Florham Park office as Counsel in the Insurance Regulatory Practice. Over a 30-year career, Reich has counseled insurance companies and broker-dealers on the full range of laws and regulations affecting the retail distribution of insurance and securities products. She has extensive experience working with state insurance and securities departments, FINRA, and the SEC on regulatory examinations, investigations, and compliance initiatives.
Prior to joining Bressler, Reich served as Vice President and Corporate Counsel at The Prudential Insurance Company of America, where she advised business units on insurance and securities regulations and served as lead counsel on multiple market conduct examinations. She earned her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College.
Victoria Ashworth joins as Counsel in Bressler’s Corporate & Commercial Transactions practice group, with a focus on technology‑driven businesses, alternative investments, and growth‑stage companies. With more than fifteen years of senior in‑house and advisory experience across fintech, global banking, and emerging technology, she provides pragmatic, business‑focused counsel to founders, executive teams, and boards on strategy, transactions, and governance.
Ashworth’s practice centers on structuring and negotiating complex commercial arrangements, including technology licensing, joint ventures, acquisitions, vendor and consulting agreements and other strategic transactions. She frequently operates as outside general counsel for start‑ups and select clients, embedding with leadership teams to design scalable contracting frameworks, streamline legal operations, and align product and marketing roadmaps with evolving regulatory expectations.
Before joining Bressler, Ashworth served as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for a fast‑growing fintech company and held senior legal and compliance roles at global financial institutions. That experience gives her an invaluable perspective on the pressures facing in‑house teams, allowing her to deliver practical, risk‑balanced advice that fits operational realities and internal stakeholder demands. While her current focus is transactional and advisory, she also brings a background in international arbitration and complex disputes, enabling her to help clients anticipate and manage contentious issues and regulatory investigations as part of a broader business and deal strategy.
Lilian Rodriguez-Baz returns to the firm as Counsel in the Florida Insurance Defense Practice. Her return further strengthens a team widely recognized for its depth and responsiveness to insurance clients across the state. She represents carriers and corporate entities in a range of complex commercial litigation, insurance coverage, construction defects, business and real estate disputes. Rodriguez-Baz also regularly handles appellate matters, ensuring comprehensive representation throughout all stages of litigation.
Maddison Bacon joins the Financial Institutions Group as an Associate in the Oklahoma City office. Bacon brings focused dedication to a practice group and experience in securities enforcement. She received her J.D. from the University of Oklahoma College of Law.
Collectively, these additions underscore Bressler’s commitment to forward-thinking, strategic growth. The firm has built its reputation by providing clients with both the focused expertise of a boutique and the resources of a full-service platform. As the legal landscape evolves, Bressler remains dedicated to expanding in areas where this approach delivers the greatest value to clients.
Bressler, Amery & Ross, P.C. is a leading full-service business law firm providing legal services to leading Fortune 500 corporations, privately held companies, investment advisers and brokerage firms, banks, franchises, insurers, non-profits, emerging market and venture capital participants, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals. Bressler's legal services encompass financial institutions and securities, insurance litigation, labor and employment, environmental, trusts and estates, corporate and commercial transactions, family law, charitable organizations, real estate, bankruptcy, business, commercial, fiduciary, and general litigation. With over 125 experienced attorneys, Bressler serves clients across its network of offices in Florham Park, NJ; New York, NY; Birmingham, AL; Fort Lauderdale, FL; Charlotte, NC; Oklahoma City, OK; and Austin, Dallas, and Houston, TX,. For more information, please visit www.bressler.com.
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