Matthew Robert Dearden

Matt is a business attorney who has lived in the Dayton, Ohio region for ten years.

Matt was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 2014. After graduating from law school, Matt worked as an associate at Thompson, Dunlap & Heydinger in Bellefontaine, Ohio, and then later as a corporate associate at Sebaly, Shillito & Dyer in Dayton. He later founded his own business law firm in the Dayton area, with a focus on entrepreneurs and startup companies. To Matt, the practice of law is as simple as helping people solve their problems.

Matt grew up in the state of Washington but headed east to attend Cedarville University in Ohio. At Cedarville, he ran cross country and was elected President of the Student Body his senior year. He graduated in 2009 with a B.A. in History.

After a two year stint as an admissions counselor for his alma mater, he attended the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where he received his Juris Doctor degree in 2014. While in law school, he was a Notes & Comments Editor for the University of Cincinnati Law Review and served as a legal intern for the Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic. Between his second and third years of law school, Matt was selected to work as a legal fellow at The Brandery, a nationally-ranked startup accelerator for high-tech companies seeking venture capital funding. It was that experience that fueled Matt’s interest and passion for working with startups and entrepreneurs.

Outside of work, Matt enjoys spending time with his wife & two daughters, playing sports, watching his beloved Portland Trail Blazers, reading history, and drinking root beer as a member of the regionally-known “Root Beer Guys.” He also volunteers with the Entrepreneurship & Community Development Clinic in Cincinnati, and has worked with several local high school mock trial teams.

Matt’s first published article appeared in Lewis & Clark’s, Environmental Law Journal, entitled A Foreordained Formality: The Utter Uselessness of Environmental Impact Statements for Federal Actions in Experimental Forests.