Overview
L. Ashley Aull is an experienced trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor who litigates business-critical and crisis cases – including intellectual-property disputes, high-tech products-liability cases and class actions.
She has led over a dozen trials, arbitrations, or other high-stakes evidentiary hearings, and she has argued 45 cases at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Having served as a federal prosecutor for nearly a decade, she also counsels clients through government investigations and defends those charged with white-collar crimes.
Experience
Product Liability and Class Actions
Intel in multiple class actions – in the United States and Israel – relating to allegedly unstable CPUs.
Activision Blizzard, in a complex class action involving parallel state and federal proceedings, in which the California Civil Rights Department sought to represent every woman who ever worked for the company. After deploying an aggressive multi-front litigation strategy, Ashley’s team helped settle the case for less than 5% of the agency’s initial settlement offer.
Electronic Arts in nationwide products-liability cases regarding allegedly addictive video games, in which the defendants defeated a petition to consolidate the cases before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.
Shimano in a nationwide class action regarding allegedly improperly designed bicycle parts.
Snap, Inc. in a wrongful death and products-liability case regarding SnapChat’s “Speed Filter.”
Intellectual Property Litigation
Fortune 100 technology company as co-lead trial counsel in an over $1 billion arbitration involving contract and accounting disputes. Her team achieved a complete defense victory and won close to $100 million on counterclaims.
Intel, Google and PNC Bank in patent cases in the Eastern and Western Districts of Texas, where she led the development of both non-infringement and damages theories for highly technical software and signal-processing patents.
Appellate
Snap, Inc. in a high-profile case before the California Supreme Court involving the Stored Communications Act.
Activision Blizzard and Blizzard Entertainment, arguing multiple Ninth Circuit appeals on behalf of the companies in cases involving the Federal Arbitration Act and complex civil-procedural questions.
Government Investigations and White Collar
International government contractor, leading investigations on behalf of a contractor facing alleged False Claims Act violations.
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, 2012-2021
Ashley rejoined Munger, Tolles & Olson in 2021 after nine years at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California—the largest federal prosecutors’ office in the country – where she spent her last several years as Chief of the Criminal Appeals Section. In that role, she led a large team of other prosecutors, overseeing approximately 300 appeals per year before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
She was lead counsel in dozens of appeals before the Ninth Circuit and worked closely with prosecutors on high-profile cases in the trial courts. She obtained convictions in multiple jury trials.
She also engineered a multi-year test litigation strategy to overturn an erroneous Ninth Circuit opinion about the organic chemistry of methamphetamine.
More
- MTO Mentor of the Year, 2024
- Leaders of Influence: Thriving in Their 40s, Los Angeles Business Journal, 2023
- Women of Influence: Attorneys, Los Angeles Business Journal, 2023
- Director’s Award, Executive Office for United States Attorneys, 2020
- Faculty member at the Department of Justice’s national training facility, where she taught trial and appellate advocacy
- Lawyer representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference
- Member of the Ninth Circuit’s Law Clerk Resources Group
