Interview the Experts: Meet Ashton, Associate Attorney at Stepp Law Group!
Read on to learn more about our associate attorney Ashton on her background, experiences, and why she chose to work in family law. Read until the end to learn a fun fact!
What is your background and how did you get into law?
I went to UNC Chapel Hill for undergrad and then to Campbell for law school. I chose law school because I've always wanted to help people and get into a helping profession. When I went to UNC I thought that was going to be the medical field. It turned out that biology and chemistry were not for me! So I said let's talk about what law school looks like. The more I looked into it the more I felt it was just a really good fit for me. I took a year off to take a break from school before choosing to go to law school but eventually, I ended up at Campbell.What made you choose family law?
My parents separated when I was 17 so I had some experience on the other side of family law, like being the client or the child in a family law case. So I knew I always wanted to do something very hands-on, very client-focused, and very litigation-focused as opposed to transactional law like corporate law or intellectual property law, and family law kind of fell in my lap and it's been a great fit so far.If you could provide any piece of advice about going through a divorce, managing assets, and/or child custody, what would you say?
Hire an attorney! It's an intense process to be going through so it's helpful to have someone who does it as their job and knows the system to help you walk through it. There are firms out there or other organizations that do it at low cost or with low income, or if you can afford an attorney, that's fine, but everybody has the same ethical obligation to advise and advocate for you. So don’t let cost be a barrier to getting legal advice. With child custody, remember, it's all about the best interest of the kids. It's not just a contest between parents, there are kids at the center of it. The same goes for managing assets, there are people at the center of this. Even though dollar signs can become overwhelming in instances, just keep in mind that there are people involved, whether that be the children or the other party. So that would be my advice, to keep in mind the human aspect of the divorce proceeding.In your opinion, how has family law changed over the years?
So, I think it's become much more collaborative in terms of avoiding an adversarial court proceeding. In North Carolina, we have what's called Alternative Dispute Resolutions, or ADR for short, which are arbitration and mediation to try to get cases settled outside of court. I think that's been a huge shift in the kind of mindset people are coming to with agreements and decisions and compromise outside of court situations, which is always better. For example, people feel better and people are generally happier when they're able to make their own decisions as opposed to a judge telling them what they should or should not do. I think family law has become much more collaborative in child custody too. We're seeing much more of a trend towards 50/50 custody with parents being collaborative. It kind of forces people to co-parent a little bit better which I think is good. It is becoming much less antagonistic than it has been before.
How long have you been practicing law, and what part of that was family law?
This August will be a year! I am a brand new baby attorney, however there is one class under me. All of it has been family law!How long do cases typically take? How much time do you usually have to file important documents or take action?
So generally the litigation case is from a year to two years, which can be shorter or longer depending on the circumstances and how systems go. We're still having a catch-up from COVID-19 so scheduling is kind of all over the place. Separation agreements and things that can be taken care of outside of court typically take less than a year (between six months to a year), again depending on the different circumstances going on in the case. You’ll find that a lawyer’s favorite answer is “It depends!” For important documents and taking action, it's really important to file as soon as possible to get the process started because, as I said, scheduling is such a long process now. For instance, if I file a claim, the other side has 30 minimum and 60 maximum days to respond to that. I have another 60 days after that to respond to their counterclaims. The faster you can get the ball rolling, the faster you can get things into court and start seeing decisions happen. There are what we call “statutes of limitation,” like if someone gets divorced before they split all their assets, you can’t go back after the divorce is final and then split assets. Either you have to reserve the assets splitting in the divorce, or you have to start splitting assets before you get divorced. Child custody and support can be filed at any time until the child in question is 18.If you could practice any other field of law, which would you do?
I’d love to say something smart like an intellectual property lawyer but that is just not my forte. Probably my dream throughout law school was to be a federal prosecutor; I think federal criminal law would be pretty fun. It’s also pretty hard to get into and I really like family law, but if I had to have any job outside of this one it would be to be a federal prosecutor. That would involve being an assistant U.S. attorney, and I would work either in Charlotte or in Raleigh, or wherever they send me!And lastly, the most important question is, is a Poptart secretly a sweet ravioli?
No! I would say it’s more akin to a Danish or some other filled pastry like a turnover. The reason I say it's not a ravioli is specifically because of the dough that’s used, ravioli uses pasta dough and Poptarts don’t!
Stay tuned for an upcoming interview with Donna, our founder and managing attorney!