Recognized on numerous award lists, including the 2023 Top 50 Louisiana Super Lawyers and Top 25 Women Louisiana Super Lawyers lists, Best Lawyers in America© and a Recognized Practitioner by Chambers and Partners USA in its Commercial Litigation category, Ashley advises businesses, financial institutions, and individuals concerning bankruptcies, class actions, contracts, construction, fidelity, surety and financial institution bonds, insurance, professional malpractice, real estate, corporate, and estate matters. She also mediates and arbitrates business disputes. Ashley currently serves as a member of the Eastern District of Louisiana Panel of Mediators appointed to conduct Hurricane Ida mediations, AAA Construction Panel, AAA Commercial Panel and FINRA Panel as an arbitrator and mediator. After Hurricane Katrina, she served as a member of the Panel of Mediators for the Louisiana Department of Insurance Hurricane Mediation Program Administered by American Arbitration Association (AAA) mediating over 350 hurricane wind damage disputes between homeowners and insurance companies.

Ashley currently serves in several professional organization leadership positions including American Counsel Association's President, the FBA Delegate to the American Bar Association, the foundation of the FBA's President-Elect, along with her role as the Vice-Chair of the ABA's Fidelity and Surety Law Committee. A long-standing prominent and active member of the Federal Bar Association, she served as the 2010-2011 National President.

A former entrepreneur, Ashley knows how a business operates from the inside out, having been a business owner since 1988. First as the owner of a publishing company, and then an owner and managing partner of a law firm, she understands the need for efficiency in the management and marketing of a business and how to address the employee and financial aspects of a business.

Ashley works with business owners and entrepreneurs assisting them with every aspect of the business from inception through growth and development to, when necessary, dissolution. She assists her clients in obtaining financing, provides on-going business advice, represents clients during litigation, and counsels them through the dissolution of the business. Ashley also consults with individuals on how to protect their personal assets through estate and trust vehicles.

Among her numerous honors and accolades, Ashley was the selected recipient of the Jack Martzell Professionalism Award by the New Orleans Bar Association in 2018, has appeared in multiple 'Top Lawyers' listings, and also honored to have been included in the 2011 Inaugural Edition of the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers™, an exclusive honor reserved for less than five percent of female lawyers who are rated AV Preeminent Women™. She is also very proud to be included in the 2020 class and 2016 class of New Orleans CityBusiness Magazine 'Leadership in Law' and the 2021 and 2012 class of CityBusiness Magazine 'Women of the Year' awards. 

A native of Mobile, Alabama, Ashley received her B.A. from Newcomb College and her J.D. from Tulane University School of Law. Upon graduating from Tulane University School of Law, she clerked in the Eastern District of Louisiana for the late Judge Henry A. Mentz, Jr. and was awarded the Eastern District of Louisiana Distinguished Service Award.

Representative Experience

• Prosecution of claims on behalf of individuals and companies
• Defense of insurance professionals accused of selling unsuitable annuities.
• Representation of fidelity and fiduciary insurance carriers in connection with employee fraud, embezzlement claims and third party claims.
• Defense of engineering companies arising from professional design and engineering services.
• Defense of law firms in connection with legal malpractice claims.
• Defense of law firm in class-action asserting violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
• Representation of owners, contractors, and subcontractors in contract negotiations and contract disputes.
• Defense of internet based company in class action brought to contest contract.
• Defense of California wine producers in class action alleging unsafe levels of arsenic.
• Defense of financial institution in suit arising from commercial leases of properties in South Louisiana.
• Defense of manufacturer in connection with product dispute regarding the design and manufacture of equipment.
• Defense of securities brokerage house in connection with dispute between securities brokerage houses.
• Defense of corporate owner in dispute with contractor over breach of construction contract relating to inadequate, defective and substandard performance.
• Defense of government entity in constitutional taking of property action.
• Defense of electrical company in anti-trust jury case alleging bid rigging of electrical contracts in a South Louisiana power plant.
• Served as a hearing examiner of property assessment tax appeals for the City of New Orleans and as a hearing officer of blighted properties for the City of New Orleans.

Notable Achievements

• Recognized by The Best Lawyers in America^© in Bankruptcy– Real Estate Litigation; Bankruptcy & Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law; 2019-2023 
• Named to the Top 50 Louisiana Super Lawyers list; 2023
• Named to the Top 25 Women Louisiana Super Lawyers list; 2018-2023
• Selected in area of Business Litigation, Louisiana Super Lawyers; 2007-2013; 2015-2022
• Selected for inclusion in New Orleans Magazine’s Top Lawyers in Trusts and Estates 2019
• Selected for inclusion in New Orleans Magazine’s Top Lawyers in Alternate Despute Resolution 2022
• Recipient of the Jack Martzell Professionalism Award of the New Orleans Bar Association; 2018
• Recognized Practitioner by Chambers and Partners USA in its Commercial Litigation category; 2017
• Selected for inclusion in New Orleans Magazine’s Top Lawyers in Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law, 2017
• CityBusiness 'Leadership in Law' Classes of 2016 and 2020
• Selected for inclusion in New Orleans Magazine’s Top Lawyers; 2013-2015
• New Orleans CityBusiness 'Women of the Year' Class of 2021 and 2012                           
• Selected for inclusion in the 2012 Top Rated Lawyers® Guide to Alternative Dispute Resolution; 2012
• Selected for Fellowship in Litigation Counsel of America, The Trial Lawyer Honorary Society; 2012
• Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers Inaugural Edition, 2011 and subsequent editions
• Editor, The Louisiana United States District Court Newsletter; 1987-1999
• Judicial Law Clerk and Extern, THE HONORABLE HENRY A. MENTZ, JR. (Deceased); United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana Distinguished Service Award; 1983-1986

Professional Associations

• American Counsel Association – President, 2022-2023, President-Elect, 2021-2022, Secretary-Treasurer, 2020-2021
• American Inns of Court - Tulane Chapter - Barrister, 1987 – present
• Federal Bar Building Corporation - Director, 2012-2018; Treasurer, 2014 – 2017; Secretary, 2013-2014; 2018
• Foundation of the Federal Bar Association – President-Elect, 2022-2023; Director, 2019 – present; Secretary, 2020 – 2021; Life Fellow, 2002 – present
• Louisiana State Bar Association - House of Delegates, 1997-2021; Vice-Chair, Bankruptcy Law Section, 2007-2018; Member, ADR Section; Member: Corporation and Business Law Section; Assistant Bar Examiner: Business Entities and Negotiable Instruments, 1993-1996; Chair, Young Lawyers Executive Council, 1994-1995; Louisiana Supreme Court Ad Hoc Committee to Study Permanent Disbarment, 2001
• Louisiana Bar Foundation - Fellow, 1989-present; Director, 1997-2000; Chair, IOLTA Banking Committee, 2000-2003; LBF Citations of Merit for Service as Chair of the IOLTA Banking Committee, 2000-2001, 2001-2002, 2002-2003; Kids’ Chance Committee, 2004-2005; New Orleans Community Panel, 2007-2009
• American Bar Association - Vice-Chair, Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) Fidelity & Surety Law General Committee; Fellow, ABA/YLD, 1995-present; Chair, ABA/YLD Host Committee for 1994 Annual Meeting; Chair, Young Lawyers Division Securities Law Committee, 1989-1991; Member, Business Law Section; Member, Alternative Dispute Resolution Section
• American Bar Foundation – Life Fellow, 2007 - present
• The International Society of Primerus Law Firms, 2009 - 2015 - Executive Committee of Construction Practice Group 2012 – 2015; PBLI Executive Committee, 2015.
• 2005 Fifth Circuit Judicial Conference - Host Committee Member

Selected Publications

• Co-Editor, Arbitration and the Surety; American Bar Association, May 2020 
• Louisiana Chapter, Editor, Business Torts: A Fifty State Guide, Wolters Kluwer Publishers, 2020
• Louisiana Chapter, Co-Author, State-by-State Guide to Architect, Engineer, and Contractor Licensing; Second Edition, Aspen Publishers, 2020
• Louisiana Chapter, Co-Author, Fifty State Construction Lien and Bond Law, Third Edition; Wolters Kluwer, 2020
• “Use of Experts:  Selection and Deployment of Experts” - ABA TIPS Fidelity and Surety Law Committee Mid-Winter Program, January 2019, San Diego
• “Effective Use of Arbitration” - ABA TIPS Fidelity and Surety Law Committee Mid-Winter Program, January 2018, Washington, D.C.
• “Pre-suit Mediation” - ABA TIPS Fidelity and Surety Law Committee Mid-Winter Program, January 2017, New Orleans

Community Involvement 

• Mirabeau Family Learning Center, Inc. - Director
• Membership in the Junior League of New Orleans
• Tulane University Reunion Committee
• Munholland United Methodist Church’s Church Council
• Jesuit Celebration/Gala Committee
• Dominican High Gala and Finance Committees and Board of Trustees
• Trained Leader and Merit Badge Counselor for BSA Troop/Venture Crew 230, St. Catherine’s of Siena School
• Outdoor Trained Leader, Girl Scouts Troop, St. Catherine’s of Siena School
• Cabbageball Assistant Coach, St. Catherine of Siena School
• Coach, softball and soccer for Metairie Playground