by Jennifer L. Keller
I’m still trying to figure out which is the real Ashleigh Aitken. The gritty, All-American collegiate rugby player? The patient Girl Scout troop leader? The gimlet-eyed federal prosecutor? Pooh-bah of the OC Fair Board? Doting mother of three little girls (who think they’re French) ... star personal injury lawyer ... incoming President of the OCBA ... or all of the above?
Yes, Ashleigh Aitken is one of those people who makes you feel bad about yourself, simply by existing. The pride of USC Law School has been doing pretty well for herself lately. After externing for Judge David O. Carter, hanging out for a few years with two national law firms, making her mark as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, being named to every “Rising Star” and “Top 40 Under 40” list around, and leading or chairing this and that—all before most of us could even organize a mid-life crisis—Ashleigh is a woman on the move.
Ashleigh started her career handling eminent domain cases at Nossaman. Through the OCBA she met Dean Zipser, who wooed her away to Morrison & Foerster (back when it had street cred as just MoFo). While many litigation associates were honing their trial skills doing online document review, Ashleigh was able to try cases in state and federal court. But she soon grew weary of her enormous BigLaw salary and bonuses, and applied to join the U.S. Attorneys’ Office. During her initial interview at a Starbucks, a young man robbed the coffee shop. Ashleigh ran outside to summon help while the two senior attorneys meeting her did nothing, which cemented her belief that working beside these courageous prosecutors was where she wanted to be. Ashleigh’s several bench and jury trials involved armed bank robbery, child pornography, and narcotics. Her first trial was before the late, great Judge Alicemarie Stotler. “She taught me more in a week about being a trial lawyer than I had learned in all my years leading up to that case,” Ashleigh said.
But you can’t keep an Aitken away from the old firmstead, by which I mean, of course, Aitken*Aitken*Cohn, the trial powerhouse where Ashleigh ended up as “of counsel.” Dad Wylie is the nationally famous plaintiff lawyer and philanthropist, with sons Darren and Chris blazing paths of their own beside him. You’d think there might be some carnage ... er, sibling rivalry ... inherent in such a familial enterprise. Now add to the mix Ashleigh’s handsome husband Michael Penn, also an AAC lawyer and a rising star in his own right, and you might imagine all-out internecine warfare. So I asked: With you, Dad, two brothers, and a spouse in the firm, and all of you highly competitive, how do you pull it off? Most families had trouble just getting through the holidays without multiple felonies.
How the heck do you all get along?
“Well, for openers, our age gap is so great that we never really jockied for position in the family. Darren changed my diapers and Chris is such a big softie that as a child I nicknamed him ‘Snuggles.’ And my dad is just happy to have us all around.
“But it took me a long time to make it ‘home.’ I was more concerned with building my own identity in a close-knit legal community. When I finally wised up and began working at the firm, I wondered what took me so long. To be able to do what you love, with the people you love, is a wonderful experience. My father never pressured us into becoming lawyers—he encouraged us to follow our own paths. After waitressing at Coco’s and slinging cocktails at a hotel bar, I asked Dad for a little more direction. In his typical love-in hippie way, he wanted me to find my passion and didn’t push the law. Thankfully, I had Darren to emulate, who made law school and being a Latham & Watkins lawyer look like fun .”
Did I mention that Ashleigh has three girls under the age of seven? Colette and Simone attend the Lycée International, to be joined eventually by twenty-one-month-old Violet. The Lycée is a French-immersion school—which would worry me as a mother. Someday they’ll be teenagers, which will be bad enough without steeping them in a culture that regards virtually all laws as senseless edicts to be waived, bent, or evaded. But does Anaheim Hills really need a trio of Aitken-Penn filles who strike, or take to the streets, at the drop of a hat? Worse yet, Ashleigh doesn’t speak French, meaning her daughters will conspire against her in a foreign tongue right under her nose. Mark my words, this lycée business could backfire.
Ashleigh, denied an école of her own, was educated in rule-bound and occasionally barbaric Catholic schools, managing to graduate from the all-girls, and decidedly non-French, Rosary High without either being expelled or racking up a 1.9 GPA, unlike a certain Catholic schoolgirl who shall remain nameless (but who may have written this article). And then, apparently a glutton for punishment, Ashleigh shipped herself off to the Jesuits of Boston College, who have been known to ask a lot of metaphysical questions that might not interest the typical 18-year-old.
“There were high school foreshadowings that I might be a lawyer. At Rosary, I was sent to the office for wearing a nose ring. When the principal called it a uniform violation, I pointed out that the handbook specifically referred to earrings hanging below the earlobe—and was silent on the nostril.” Needless to say, the next year’s Rosary handbook was amended to describe rules about “facial jewelry.” This semi-notorious incident pops up occasionally at meetings of the Rosary High School Board of Directors—on which Ashleigh now sits, beside that same principal.
“I’ve always loved history, so choosing a college in historic Boston was easy. And it met my other high-brow criterion: a Division-One football team. It never occurred to me to go to a non-Catholic university. Is that allowed? Wouldn’t God find out?
“I started playing rugby when my parents wanted me to drop soccer because they thought it was too rough. So rugby made sense. The first game they attended was on a bitterly cold day, played in a sea of mud. Their daughter had just been standing behind a scrum, screaming out plays, when she was pummeled to the ground. They spent the rest of the weekend staring at an enormous egg on my forehead. Bette was not pleased. But when they saw how much I loved it, they became huge fans of the game.”
Apart from winning at rugby and football, another thing the Jesuits believe in is service, which seems to have reinforced the lessons Ashleigh’s parents instilled in her by their own example. “My parents are tireless leaders. My mom spent her spare time volunteering at my school and for charity, and my dad has always been involved in the community. I enjoy going to fundraisers and seeing my inheritance drain away to this organization or that. My parents have never rested on their laurels, no matter how many awards they receive.”
After college, Ashleigh served as a special assistant to the Democratic Leader of the House, Dick Gephardt, and worked on the floor of Congress. There she watched a Speaker of the House resign and a President get impeached. Ashleigh said, “When I first started working for Gephardt, all the big-time chiefs of staff and members of Congress were so nice to me. They always asked how my dad was doing, and invited me to major galas and events—I thought it was the friendliest city ever! About six months later, a member of Congress remarked about my father’s advanced age. I finally figured out everyone thought I was the daughter of the then-ninety-year-old founder of Akin Gump, not Wylie Aitken of Aitken*Aitken*Cohn in Santa Ana. The invitations stopped and I was dropped like a wet rag.” Nevertheless, Mr. Gephardt remains an inspiration to Ashleigh for his public service and ethics.
Ashleigh is active in her church and in the arts, supporting South Coast Repertory and Chance Theater. She has been President of Orange County Women Lawyers, a founding member of OCBA’s Mommy Esquire Committee, Vice President of the Hispanic Bar Association, President-Elect of the Celtic Bar Association, is Chairperson of the OC Fair Board, and was a member of the Anaheim Community Services Board before finally becoming its Chair.
Does she not sleep? Ashleigh replies, “Michael is a committed feminist, supports everything I do, even when it keeps me away from home, and is my number-one fan. We’ve learned to be as organized at home as we are at work. Michael and I used to come home, enjoy a quiet dinner, and watch TV. Now we don’t take a shower without checking the family calendar. So besides my husband, mom, mother-in-law, nanny, legal assistant, and my housekeeper, I do it all myself.”
One thing I know about Ashleigh: she doesn’t see any position as just a résumé-enhancer. She likes to accomplish goals—worthy and difficult ones. So I asked her, what are your plans for 2015, now that you wield the vast and terrifying power of the OCBA presidency?
“My goals are two-fold: I’m starting a task force to create a Veterans and Military Committee. We’d like to create a centralized place for stakeholders in the military community to assess needs, legal resources, and existing programs, and avoid duplication of services. I want to enlist our local law schools and the bar to provide service hours under the new pro bono requirements.
“I owe a lot to the bar, and was lucky to be involved so early in my career. So I’m also looking for ways to facilitate greater participation by new lawyers, and create a leadership pipeline that captures the enthusiasm they have when they’ve graduated from the Young Lawyers Division, but still want to contribute.”
I have a feeling that 2015 will be a year of achievement for the OCBA and its incoming President Ashleigh Aitken, which will only make me feel like even more of a slacker, but c’est la vie!
Jennifer L. Keller of Keller Rackauckas LLP was the 1996 President of the Orange County Bar Association. She tries complex civil and white-collar criminal cases in state and federal court, and has been routinely named to the Los Angeles Daily Journal’s list of the Top 100 Lawyers in California. Her firm was recently listed by that same publication as one of California’s top boutiques in the litigation category. She is not bitter that Ashleigh Aitken is thinner, younger, better looking, has a gorgeous husband, and children who speak French.