Ashley Richards is the Founder, Managing Partner & Lead Investigator at Richards Advocacy. She has been practicing as a litigation lawyer since 2006, and has worked as an external investigator since 2018. Ashley is a passionate legal professional.

Ashley started her legal career at a large Bay Street firm. Ashley gained experience in commercial and class action litigation. Ashley also developed expertise in product liability litigation, and was a member of the trial team for the first product liability class action common issues trial in Canada. While working on Bay Street, Ashley was exposed to a variety of complex litigation matters and was mentored by leading practitioners.

Ashley transitioned from a commercial and class action practice to a practice in insurance defence and coverage in 2012. This transition provided Ashley with greater responsibility over the strategy of each file and gave her greater access to the courtroom. During this time, Ashley developed an extensive motions practice including procedural and substantive motions.  Ashley’s insurance practice included a variety of complex tort actions, subrogation, educational malpractice, historical sexual abuse claims, and insurance coverage. Ashley became a Partner at this firm in 2017.

On October 1, 2018, Ashley opened Richards Advocacy. Richards Advocacy is a boutique law firm that specializes in insurance-related litigation and advice, defending institutional sexual abuse claims, and conducting external investigations for workplaces and post-secondary institutions.

Ashley continues to work as an insurance coverage lawyer and civil litigator, and has a proven expertise in insurance-related matters and tort-related disputes.  Ashley is regularly consulted on a variety of insurance matters with a particular expertise relating to property policies and subrogated claims.  She is also regularly retained by institutions responding to sexual assault claims, and provides advise to institutions on policies and procedures relating to sexual and gender-based violence.

At Richards Advocacy, Ashley transition her practice to include external workplace investigations.  This new area emerged from her experience defending educational and religious institutions in the areas of historical sexual abuse, sexual assault, harassment, and discrimination. Ashley is now a trained investigator on complaints of harassment, discrimination, civility, research integrity, employee dishonesty, and sexual and gender-based violence.  She has completed over 40 investigations since 2018.  Ashley has particular expertise within the educational setting, understanding the needs of students, faculty, and staff while navigating a complaint process that includes procedural fairness, transparency, and efficiency.  Ashley also has a unique skill-set for conducting sexual and gender-based violence investigations, given her litigation experience, and training as a trauma-informed lawyer and investigator.