When an employer is facing a wage and hour class action or a high-stakes commercial dispute, they need a lawyer who can try the case — not just settle it. That’s what clients get with Ashley Paynter.
A first-chair trial attorney with more than a decade of experience, Ashley defends employers of all sizes against wage and hour class and collective actions, employee misclassification claims, and complex commercial litigation in federal and state courts and in arbitration across the country. She has particular depth representing transportation and logistics companies navigating the wave of wage and hour litigation sweeping the industry, including serving as trial counsel in a certified class action tried to a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Ashley pursues every reasonable opportunity to resolve a case favorably before trial — but opposing counsel knows that if a case is headed for a jury, she’s ready to take it there. That reputation, built over years of litigating class and collective actions to verdict and through appeal, gives clients confidence from the first filing through final resolution.
Her perspective is broadened by experience most litigators don’t have. Ashley clerked for Judge Larry J. McKinney of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana and has served as in-house corporate counsel — experience that lets her see a dispute from the judge’s chambers and the client’s boardroom, not just from behind counsel’s table. She draws on that background to deliver practical, business-minded strategy rather than a one-size-fits-all defense.
Before joining Ogletree Deakins, Ashley litigated at Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila, Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson and Feary, and Bingham Greenebaum Doll — experience that gave her an early and deep grounding in transportation industry litigation. She is licensed in Washington, California, and Indiana, and regularly speaks and writes on wage and hour compliance and litigation trends affecting the trucking and logistics industry.
Ashley received her J.D., summa cum laude, from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, and her B.A., with distinction, from Indiana University.
