About Ashford & Merritt.

How the firm started

Ashford and Merritt International Law was founded in 2003 in a one-room office on the eighth floor of a building on North LaSalle Street in Chicago. The two founders — Margaret Ashford, who had spent the previous decade in the family-law department of a downtown firm, and David Reyes, a transactional attorney from a regional business practice — believed that the way most law firms talked to their clients was the problem, not the law itself. Their proposition was simple: legal counsel that explains itself, in plain English, whatever the jurisdiction and whatever the matter.

The firm grew deliberately. The Chicago office added a litigator in 2005, an estate-planning attorney in 2007, and a tax attorney in 2010. Denver and Atlanta followed, then New York and Los Angeles. The first international office opened in London in 2014, led by a team that had built a cross-border arbitration practice from Chicago. From there, the expansion followed the firm’s clients: into Asia in 2016 (Hong Kong and Singapore), the Middle East in 2018 (Dubai), continental Europe in 2019 (Paris, Frankfurt, Brussels), Latin America in 2020, Africa in 2022, and Australia in 2024.

Today the firm has 22 offices across six continents and fields more than 400 attorneys qualified in over 60 jurisdictions worldwide.

How we work

The firm operates on three principles, written into the partnership agreement and reviewed every year.

The first principle is plain language. Every letter, every email, every document a client sees goes through a readability check. If a paragraph can be rewritten so that a smart non-lawyer can read it once and understand what it means, it gets rewritten. This applies in every language the firm works in and every jurisdiction it serves. We have lost clients to firms with more dramatic marketing and we are at peace with that.

The second principle is fee transparency. Clients are told, in writing, what an engagement is likely to cost before they sign anything. When the work is hourly, we provide ranges, not bottomless retainers. When the work is flat-fee, we say so. When something unexpected happens that will change the cost, the client hears about it from us before the next bill, not after.

The third principle is referring out. Even a firm of four hundred attorneys cannot be all things to all clients. We have referral relationships with trusted law firms in every jurisdiction where we practice and in several practice niches we do not cover. If a client’s matter would be better handled elsewhere, we tell them so on the first call. The number of clients we have referred out over the years is a number we are proud of.

Leadership

The firm is led by a Global Chair (Margaret Ashford), a Global Vice Chair (David Reyes), and an executive committee of seven partners drawn from the firm’s major practice groups and regions. Regional managing partners in each office handle day-to-day operations, and practice-group heads coordinate cross-border work across the firm’s 22 offices. The Global Chair and Vice Chair rotate every four years; the current chair term runs through 2027.

Recognition

Ashford and Merritt attorneys have been recognized in Chambers Global, Chambers USA, The Legal 500, IFLR1000, and other directories. Several partners hold silk (KC) or equivalent senior designations in their home jurisdictions. The firm declines to participate in rankings that require payment for placement and does not publish league tables it did not earn.

Pro bono and community

Every Ashford and Merritt attorney is expected to commit at least fifty hours per year to pro bono work, community legal service, or board service. The firm maintains partnerships with legal-aid organizations and human-rights NGOs in every region where it practices. Pro bono hours are credited toward billable expectations on a one-to-one basis. The firm’s pro bono practice has handled matters ranging from asylum claims and human-rights litigation to incorporation of charitable entities and advice to indigenous communities on land-rights negotiations.

Visiting us

Our offices are open by appointment. The Global Headquarters remains in Chicago, in the same building the firm has occupied since 2013. Every office can be reached through the contact page on this site. Parking and accessibility information is available from each office directly.