Ashley concentrates her practice in management-side employment litigation, including defending claims against wage and hour, discrimination, wrongful discharge, and breach of contract. She also has a broader general litigation practice that has allowed her to defend clients in complex toxic tort actions, class actions, asbestos personal injury defense, construction defect cases, and FELA claims for railroad clients. Ashley’s specialty is complex litigation, class actions and multi-plaintiff litigation. She also advises clients in the area of traditional labor law and has defended both small businesses and national companies in their effort to be union-free.
Ashley is experienced in e-discovery, the use of emerging technologies in the workplace, and developing records retention policies. She is a member of the Steering Committee for the Records Retention and E-Discovery Practice Group of Ogletree Deakins. Ashley regularly conducts in-house training and speaks to legal and human resource professionals on such relevant topics as E-Discovery Issues in Employment for clients, human resource professional groups, and fellow attorneys.
Ashley is also a member of the Steering Committee for the firm’s Cybersecurity and Privacy Group. Ashley helps employers draft and develop data privacy, technology and data security policies. Ashley also advises clients about the data security aspects of human resource related policies, including BYOD policies, background check privacy issues, and social media privacy issues. She also handles litigation associated with data breaches. Ashley was a member of the legal team involved in Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc., et al. v. R. James Nicholson, et al., which at the time, was the largest class action in the data privacy area with over 28,000,000 members.
In addition to her litigation practice, Ashley counsels employers and provides training on various employment issues that they face each day, including medical and disability issues, privacy concerns, and all forms of workplace policies. She negotiates and drafts employee-related agreements, including employment agreements and separation and release agreements—all with an eye toward providing her clients the business results they seek, coupled with the strongest legal protections possible.
