Jul 29, 2024 | admin
Ashley Strandjord knows exactly what goes into building a winning case. She began accumulating experience at sixteen years old when a family friend referred her to a local law firm that needed a helping hand. Fueled by an enthusiasm for law and the prospect of becoming the first lawyer in her family circle, Ashley jumped at the opportunity, prepared to work hard to establish herself in the world of legal practice. With her parents’ car keys in one hand and her favorite legal thriller (The Firm, by John Grisham) in the other, Ashley set out on her journey to become a lawyer.
As with the early beginnings of any career, there were rungs to climb before reaching the professional heights reserved for licensed attorneys, and Ashley was up for the challenge: “I learned how to do mail, I learned how to file, I learned how to intake cases. Eventually, I began drafting motions – and actively working cases.” Ashley became involved in legal work from the ground up and learned each aspect of legal practice from a young age, thanks to her unrelenting drive to further herself professionally.
Now, as an attorney, Ashley values her early days spent learning the inner workings of cases, believing in the importance of knowing what role each team member plays in the process. “You have to understand what you’re asking people to do, and how long it might take,” Ashley explained.
Ashley’s focused and organized approach resulted in a win for her team in May 2024 when they secured a well-deserved settlement for their client after a lengthy battle with a hotel and their insurance provider. Ashley’s client – a hard-working woman with a big heart and charming sense of humor – suffered an unusual fall in her hotel room shower, with the impact of the fall resulting in a broken hip.
Immediately after her fall, Ashley’s client, who was by herself in her room, had to drag herself from the shower into the main room where her phone lay. Ashley described the desperate situation of her client’s struggle to crawl, commenting that not only had she suffered a serious injury, but also a significant indignity, as she could not even clothe herself once she reached her main room.
Dignity is something Ashley is always ready to fight for. “It was the dignity aspect that drew me to this case. She should never have to go through that […] I’ll fight to the death for that to never happen again,” Ashley remarked.
Ashley’s client believed the floor of the shower to have been unusually slippery, prompting a site inspection, which yielded the possibility that a cleaning solution was present on the floor of the shower. While building her case, Ashley became familiar with the premises and investigated the operational processes used to clean each hotel room: “In any premises case, you’ve got to know what it is your client got injured on, and why.”
One might expect that attorneys build cases by sifting through folders of files at their office desks. In reality, attorneys are often putting their boots on the ground to get to the bottom of cases no matter where their research and investigation take them. From assessing an expert slip-test analysis to interviewing property staff and observing cleaning processes on-premises, Ashley credits her hours spent on-site as a key factor in reaching a settlement, the data she gathered proving pivotal overall.
When asked what makes this particular win special, Ashley regarded the client herself: “I love this client, she was an absolute pleasure to work with.” During the course of the case, Ashley often traveled to her client’s home to work closely in an environment within which her client was comfortable. In getting to know her client, Ashley came to know a woman of great tenacity and a strong work ethic. Her client, an MVA employee for life, had been the first female
inspector for the Maryland State MVA, and had even spent time working with undercover investigators to break up illegal vehicle sales operations. “She’s just such a formidable woman; she’s very impressive,” Ashley added.
Ashley Strandjord has been an attorney at ChasenBoscolo for seven years. When asked what makes ChasenBoscolo home for Ashley, she answered quickly: “I love the people. I love the clients, I love the people that I work with. Everybody here is so willing to help everybody else.” Ashley remarked that her colleagues are passionate and invested, citing ChasenBoscolo’s working environment as key: “When you have a group of people who want to be in trial, who want to be involved; case managers and professional staff, who want to come and see what we do – you’ve created a wonderful environment.”
