The Law Firm of Dasti & Staiger has a staff of young professionals who are very familiar with the communities of the Jersey Shore they serve.
Christopher Dasti and Lauren Staiger both live in Ocean County and their office is located on 310 Lacey Road in the Forked River section of Lacey Township.
“Our firm is nearly six years old years old and we have an office here and an annex behind us. We have seven lawyers and five staff members. The majority of our business is representing public entities throughout the state,” Dasti said.
He further explained, “we serve as municipal attorneys to a half a dozen towns, in addition to serving as labor counsel, land use board attorneys, prosecutors, public defenders etc. to dozens more. We opened the firm in 2018 and it was just a secretary and I, then within a year we added two associates.”
“Our first office was maybe 1,000 square feet. It was cozy. Our two associates shared an office. We closed on this office the week before everything shut down from COVID-19 in March 2020,” he added.
Despite the challenges during the period of the pandemic, the law firm survived and thrived. “It worked out well because this used to be a dental surgeon’s office so downstairs the rooms were so chopped up and so I knew we had to rehab the whole downstairs so it worked out because due to Covid, everyone had to work from home anyway so we opened up the upstairs which was redone in April of that year and downstairs. We moved everyone back in August of that year.”
Staiger noted that the annex building was purchased “in January of last year.”
“One of the ways we have grown so much and so fast is that we are ultra responsive to our clients,” Dasti explained.
“We have continued to grow. You want to make sure you don’t grow too fast and all of sudden you are not doing as good of a job. We are young and tenacious and can keep moving forward,” he said.
Dasti noted that among the areas of expertise, the firm covers includes personal injury cases, real estate transactions, estate planning. “We try to cover many different legal disciplines and be a full-service firm.”
“We all have strong ties to the community and a vested interest in staying here and doing a good job, A lot of our team serves on non-profit boards so we all try to be good community partners. It is more than just dollars and cents,” Dasti added.
Staiger said after working for two other firms during her career she got an offer she couldn’t refuse. “Chris started something really great in 2018 and it continued to grow and he offered me the opportunity to come and I took it.”
“We’ve been friendly and have known each other for a number of years between work and political things and when he offered me this opportunity, I couldn’t say no. It’s great. We work well together. We have a lot of the same clients and a similar mindset and it has been a great jump for me. I live in Manahawkin so the office is close to home, too,” she added.
“We have a great team of attorneys and staff. We think of our team as a growing family and have built a team atmosphere,” Dasti added.
Members of the legal team also include Brigit P. Zahler who has litigated cases successfully in the Superior Court of New Jersey and the Supreme Court of New York, Jeffrey D. Cheney whose primary areas of focus are civil litigation, personal injury litigation, real estate transactions, public entity law, and land use and Brian R. Clancy, a Lacey resident who has 25 years of law enforcement experience with the City of Elizabeth police department. His primary focus is land use, municipal court practice, estate planning, real estate and litigation.
Other legal team members include Christopher A. Khatami who has represented numerous public entities at the municipal, county, and state levels and focuses on state and federal court litigation and William J. Oxley, whose primary areas of focus are environmental law, land use, public entity law, and real estate transactions.
Staiger said having worked for other firms and other areas of the state provided her different experiences. “I can say it is more of a family being smaller and we are all kind of doing the same thing and are all in the same age group which helps as well. We all relate to each other on a professional and personal level.”
“You learn how to develop those relationships and they are part of what we do because obviously, times change and one of the things that helps with longevity is not only your professional ability but the interpersonal relationships you develop with your clients,” Staiger said.
For further information about Dasti & Staiger visit their website at DastiLaw.com or call 609-549-8990.
