Ashley is the Deputy General Counsel and Head of Global Claims & Disputes for AtkinsRealis. He is a member of the General Counsel’s leadership team and leads the litigation and dispute resolution strategy for AtkinsRealis globally.
Having qualified and worked as a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand for two years, Ashley traveled to the United Kingdom in 1990 and practiced as a solicitor with the construction law firm Masons (now Pinsent Masons), where he lived and worked in London, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Hong Kong, before joining the international law firm Jones Day in Hong Kong in 2001. Ashley was one of the founding partners of the Jones Day Beijing office in 2003 and lived for 10 years in Beijing before returning to Hong Kong in 2013. Throughout this period Ashley, led the Jones Day Asia Construction Practice overseeing lawyers in the Firm’s Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Taipei offices. At both Masons and Jones Day, Ashley was involved in major construction, real estate and infrastructure projects and disputes throughout the UK, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America.
In 2015 Ashley moved in-house with Gammon Construction Limited, one of the largest general contractors in Hong Kong. Ashley was involved in managing and directing the legal activities of the company, including transactions by way of acquisition, disposal and joint venture, document reviews, compliance, and dispute avoidance and resolution. Reporting to the Chief Executive and the Board, Ashley was closely involved in the management of the company and sat on the Executive Committee. He also served as the Company Secretary and was the Chair of the company’s Diversity and Inclusion Council.
Ashley joined AtkinsRealis in December 2022 and is based in Tampa, Florida, with a global remit to oversee the Company’s claims and disputes portfolio.
In terms of community outreach and support, Ashley was a director on the Board of Governors of the Western Academy of Beijing International School for 5 years and served as Chairman of the Board in 2006-2007 in the lead-up to the 2008 Olympics, when the Australian Olympic team used the school as its training base. Ashley was also a visiting professor in construction law at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing between 2010 and 2013 and a visiting professor in real estate and construction law with the Peking University School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen from 2014 to 2015. Ashley was the Chair of the British Chamber of Commerce’s Construction Industry Group in Hong Kong from 2019 to 2022 and the Chair of the Society of Construction Law in Hong Kong in 2019-2020.
Ashley has been listed as a leading construction lawyer in the prestigious “International Who’s Who of Construction Lawyers” and was ranked as a leading individual for construction and dispute resolution by PLC Which Lawyer?, as well as in the Asia Pacific Legal 500, and Chambers & Partners Asia Legal Guide. In 2018 Ashley was also recognized as one of the top 50 General Counsel in Asia by the Legal 500 GC Powerlist. Ashley is the author of the only English language textbook on Chinese Construction Law, which was first published by CCH Kluwers in October 2006 with a second edition published in November 2009.