Leon Ashford has 37 years of courtroom experience as a trial lawyer. As he has done consistently in the past, Mr. Ashford handles a number of cases each year which result in multi-million dollar jury verdicts and settlements for his clients and their families. He enjoys a referral practice which takes him to courthouses all over the state of Alabama, and throughout the United States. Though he has always focused his practice on complex litigation involving catastrophic personal injuries and wrongful death, he has recently been called upon to represent a number of family owned and closely held businesses in litigation which threatened generations of success. He feels strongly that a trial lawyer is an integral part of the team approach to litigation of complex business disputes. In addition to his busy law practice, he has been the firm's managing partner since 1996. Mr. Ashford was born in 1948 and raised in Athens, Alabama. The first in his family to get a college education, he attended the University of Alabama on an Athletic Scholarship as a student trainer and earned his undergraduate degree in 1970. That same year, he was lettered by Coach Bryant and became a member of the University of Alabama "A" Club. He then attended Alabama's law school and earned his Juris Doctorate degree in 1973. Mr. Ashford has remained close to Alabama's Athletic Department, representing two of the past head football coaches and the current women's gymnastics coach. In 1994, the University Administration and Office of General Counsel asked Mr. Ashford and the firm to represent the Faculty Athletics Representative before the NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee. In the first successful appeal in NCAA history, the good name of the Faculty Athletics Representative was cleared and many of the sanctions against the Athletic Department were overturned. Honored by his peers as a trial lawyer, Mr. Ashford is a Fellow in the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is an Advocate of the American Board of Trial Advocates and a Fellow of the Alabama Law Foundation. He has been listed for the past fifteen years in the Best Lawyers in America: Commercial Litigation, Medical Malpractice, Personal Injury and Product Liability, with recent inclusion in the category of "Bet the Company Litigation". As well, Mr. Ashford was named Alabama's Lawyer of the Year for Personal Injury Litigation in 2010.  He was profiled as a Tier 1 "Leading Individual" for the state of Alabama by Chambers USA for 2010 and was named by the 2008 edition of Alabama Super Lawyers® magazine as one of the top two lawyers in the state of Alabama. Mr. Ashford is a frequent speaker on litigation issues, including discovery and trial techniques. In 1994, he received the Walter P. Gewin Award from the Alabama state Bar for his contributions to Continuing Legal Education.