Practice Areas
Every major area of legal practice.
Fourteen practice clusters covering more than 70 areas of law. From cross-border M&A to human-rights litigation, from patent prosecution to maritime admiralty — Ashford & Merritt fields attorneys qualified in over 60 jurisdictions. If your matter falls within our practice, we handle it. If it does not, we will tell you so honestly and point you to a firm that does.
M&A, business formation, corporate governance, commercial contracts, securities, and private equity — the legal architecture of business.
Business Formation
Entity selection, formation, and governance for startups, joint ventures, and subsidiaries worldwide.
Commercial Contracts
Drafting, negotiation, and enforcement of commercial agreements across industries and borders.
Corporate Governance
Board advice, committee charters, shareholder relations, and governance reviews across jurisdictions.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Cross-border and domestic M&A for buyers, sellers, targets, and boards.
Private Equity & Venture Capital
Fund formation, portfolio transactions, carried-interest structures, and LP-side representation.
Securities
Capital raising, SEC compliance, listing rules, and securities litigation across major exchanges.
Banking, tax, restructuring, investment funds, insurance, and capital markets — capital, structured and protected.
Banking & Finance
Syndicated lending, acquisition finance, project finance, and regulatory capital advice.
Bankruptcy & Restructuring
Chapter 11, cross-border insolvency, creditor committees, and out-of-court workouts.
Capital Markets
Debt and equity offerings, structured products, derivatives, and listing compliance.
Insurance
Regulatory, product development, coverage disputes, and M&A in the insurance sector.
Investment Funds
Hedge, private credit, real estate, and infrastructure fund formation and ongoing counsel.
Tax
Domestic and cross-border tax planning, transfer pricing, VAT/GST, and tax controversy.
Civil litigation, international arbitration, class actions, mediation, and appellate — disputes resolved with judgment.
ADR & Mediation
Structured negotiation, early neutral evaluation, and mediation across commercial sectors.
Appellate
Civil and regulatory appeals at every level, including supreme and constitutional courts.
Civil Litigation
Disputes that need to be resolved in or under threat of court, in any forum worldwide.
Class Actions
Defense and prosecution of multi-party claims in jurisdictions with class-action mechanisms.
International Arbitration
Commercial and investment treaty arbitration under all major institutional rules.
Commercial and residential real estate, land use, construction, and real-estate finance — property transactions that hold their value.
Commercial Real Estate
Acquisition, disposition, leasing, and development of office, retail, industrial, and mixed-use.
Construction Law
Contract negotiation, project counsel, delay claims, and construction dispute resolution.
Land Use & Zoning
Entitlement, variance, rezoning, environmental impact review, and community-benefit agreements.
Real Estate Finance
Mortgage lending, CMBS, mezzanine financing, and loan restructuring across jurisdictions.
Residential Real Estate
High-value residential purchases, sales, and leasehold matters for individuals and families.
Employment law, workers' compensation, labor relations, executive compensation, immigration, and global mobility.
Employment Law
Hiring through separation, handbooks, investigations, restrictive covenants, and multi-country compliance.
Executive Compensation
Equity plans, deferred compensation, change-in-control provisions, and 409A/global equivalents.
Global Mobility
Multi-country workforce movement, secondee programs, and expatriate compliance.
Immigration
Business immigration, investor visas, family-based petitions, asylum, and citizenship.
Labor Relations
Union campaigns, collective bargaining, unfair labor practice proceedings, and strike management.
Workers' Compensation
Defense and claims management for employers across industries and jurisdictions.
Patent, trademark, copyright, trade secrets, data privacy, cybersecurity, and AI — intangible assets, tangibly protected.
AI & Emerging Tech
AI governance, algorithmic accountability, autonomous-systems liability, and tech regulation.
Copyright
Registration, licensing, fair-use analysis, and infringement litigation across media and software.
Data Privacy & Cybersecurity
GDPR, CCPA, APAC privacy regimes, breach response, and privacy-by-design programs.
Patent
Prosecution, portfolio management, freedom-to-operate, and patent litigation globally.
Trade Secrets
Protection programs, non-disclosure regimes, and misappropriation litigation.
Trademark
Clearance, registration, enforcement, and anti-counterfeiting across 150+ jurisdictions.
Antitrust, international trade, sanctions, government contracts, healthcare, and financial-services regulation.
Antitrust & Competition
Merger control, abuse-of-dominance, cartel defense, and competition compliance worldwide.
Financial Services Regulation
Prudential regulation, conduct-of-business rules, fintech licensing, and enforcement defense.
Government Contracts
Bid protests, contract performance disputes, compliance programs, and suspension/debarment defense.
Healthcare Regulation
Fraud-and-abuse, Stark, AKS, FDA, EMA, reimbursement, and healthcare compliance.
International Trade & Sanctions
OFAC, EU, UN sanctions, export controls, CFIUS, and trade-remedy proceedings.
White-collar defense, federal criminal defense, internal investigations, FCPA, and corporate compliance.
Corporate Compliance
Program design, risk assessment, training, and monitorship liaison across regulatory regimes.
FCPA & Anti-Corruption
Anti-bribery compliance, due diligence, investigation, and enforcement defense across borders.
Federal Criminal Defense
Federal indictment through trial and appeal. Every federal district, every circuit.
Internal Investigations
Board- and audit-committee-directed investigations into alleged misconduct worldwide.
White Collar Defense
Fraud, securities enforcement, public-corruption, and insider-trading defense.
Family law, estate planning, elder law, private wealth, and marital agreements — the matters closest to home.
Elder Law
Guardianship, long-term care planning, elder-abuse remedies, and capacity issues.
Estate Planning
Wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and multi-jurisdictional estate structures.
Family Law
Divorce, custody, support, and the legal architecture of major family change across borders.
Prenuptial & Postnuptial Agreements
Marital property agreements for individuals, families, and their advisors across jurisdictions.
Private Wealth & Trusts
Cross-border wealth structures, family offices, philanthropic vehicles, and dynastic planning.
Personal injury, medical malpractice, product liability, wrongful death, and mass torts.
Mass Torts
Multi-plaintiff, multi-jurisdictional tort claims including MDL proceedings and global settlements.
Medical Malpractice
Claims against providers and institutions for failures in the standard of care.
Personal Injury
Serious injury claims arising from negligence across jurisdictions and industries.
Product Liability
Design-defect, manufacturing-defect, and failure-to-warn claims across consumer and industrial products.
Wrongful Death
Claims on behalf of families who have lost someone to negligence or misconduct.
Energy, environmental law, oil and gas, mining, renewables, and climate/ESG.
Climate & ESG
Net-zero commitments, carbon markets, ESG disclosure, and greenwashing litigation defense.
Energy Law
Power generation, transmission, energy trading, and utility regulation across markets.
Environmental Law
Permitting, remediation, environmental-impact assessment, and enforcement defense.
Mining & Natural Resources
Mineral rights, royalty structures, mining concessions, and community-benefit agreements.
Oil & Gas
Upstream, midstream, and downstream, including concession agreements, joint operating agreements, and decommissioning.
Renewables & Clean Energy
Wind, solar, hydrogen, battery storage, and carbon-capture project development and finance.
Maritime, aviation, logistics, and transportation regulation — the law of movement.
Aviation Law
Aircraft finance and leasing, regulatory compliance, accident response, and liability defense.
Logistics & Supply Chain
Freight contracts, warehouse liability, trade disruption, and force majeure across global supply chains.
Maritime & Admiralty
Ship finance, charter parties, cargo claims, casualty response, and arrest proceedings.
Transportation Regulation
Rail, road, and multimodal regulatory compliance, licensing, and enforcement defense.
Media law, entertainment, sports, and defamation — the deals and disputes behind the public-facing industries.
Defamation & Reputation Management
Libel, slander, online-reputation defense, and pre-publication intervention across borders.
Entertainment Law
Film, television, music, and digital-content production, financing, and talent agreements.
Media Law
Pre-publication review, journalist privilege, broadcast licensing, and platform regulation.
Sports Law
Athlete representation, sponsorship, governance disputes, and regulatory proceedings before sports bodies.
Human rights, treaty law, administrative law, constitutional law, and public international law.
Administrative Law
Judicial review of agency action, rulemaking challenges, and regulatory due-process claims.
Constitutional Law
Constitutional challenges, amicus briefing, and separation-of-powers questions in multiple jurisdictions.
Human Rights
Strategic litigation, treaty-body submissions, and human-rights due diligence for states and corporations.
Public International Law
State immunity, law of the sea, boundary disputes, and international-organizations law.
Treaty Law
Treaty interpretation, state-to-state disputes, and advice on treaty accession and compliance.
Not sure which area?
Tell us what is happening. We will route you to the right attorney.
Most matters cross more than one practice area. Send us two or three sentences and we’ll do the routing for you.