Established 1987 · New York · Attorneys at Law
A deliberately small firm of trial and transactional partners.
1987
Serving New York clients since
2,400+
Matters handled to resolution
$180M+
Recovered and closed for clients
6
Focused areas of legal practice
Practice Areas
Six disciplines, argued and closed by senior counsel.
We keep a deliberately narrow practice so the partner you meet is the partner who does the work — across the disputes, transactions, and life events that matter most.
01
Formation, financing, contracts, and the sale or purchase of a company — counsel that reads the deal the way opposing counsel will.
02
Commercial disputes, contract and partnership breakups, and appeals — prepared for trial from the first filing, settled from a position of strength.
03
Wills, trusts, and estate administration written in plain language, structured to hold up and to spare your family a courtroom.
04
Divorce, custody, and support handled with discretion and steadiness — protecting what matters while keeping conflict contained.
05
Residential and commercial closings, leasing, and land-use matters across the five boroughs, with the diligence a New York transaction demands.
06
Counsel for employers and executives on agreements, severance, and workplace disputes — practical advice before a problem becomes a claim.
The Firm
Big-firm judgment. Senior counsel. Your partner on the file.
Founded in 1987 by James Ashford and the late Eleanor Crane, the firm rests on one conviction: the lawyer who earns your trust should be the lawyer who does your work. Four decades on, that holds.
We are deliberately small. Our partners carry decades of courtroom and transactional experience, and answer their own phones. When a matter reaches us, it reaches a senior attorney — not a rotating cast of associates.
Representative Matters
A selection of matters, resolved on our clients' terms.
A representative sample across the disputes, transactions, and family matters we handle — each led by the partner who saw it through to resolution.
Business & Corporate
We represented a third-generation manufacturer in the sale of the company to an overseas buyer. Our partners negotiated the agreement, resolved a diligence dispute over environmental liability, and closed on the original timeline.
Outcome:
$42M transaction closed
Civil Litigation
When a decades-old partnership fractured, we tried our client’s breach and accounting claims to judgment. The matter was prepared for trial from the first filing and argued by the partner our client met on day one, three years earlier.
Outcome:
Full defense verdict
Estate Planning & Probate
Two siblings arrived at the firm on opposite sides of their mother’s estate. We restructured the distribution and guided both parties through mediation, preserving the family relationship and avoiding a public probate fight.
Outcome:
Estate dispute resolved in mediation
Attorneys
The partners who will handle your matter.
James R. Ashford
Founding Partner
Trial and appellate litigation. Four decades of commercial disputes before the New York and federal courts.
Margaret Ellison
Managing Partner
Business & corporate law. Guides founders and closely held companies through financing, growth, and sale.
Marcus D. Reyes
Partner
Estate planning & probate. Builds wills and trusts that protect families and hold up when they are needed.
In Their Words
Clients who trusted us with what mattered.
“They wrote our whole estate plan in plain English and answered every question twice without once glancing at the clock.”
— Estate Planning Client
“Margaret closed the acquisition on a deadline everyone said was impossible, and caught two terms that would have cost us for years.”
— Business & Corporate Client
“I met the partner at the first meeting and the same partner stood up in court. That is rarer than it should be, and it mattered at trial.”
— Civil Litigation Client
Talk to a partner, not a case number.
Tell us what you are facing. The first consultation is with a senior attorney, at no cost and in confidence — so you leave knowing where you stand.