Consulting Services

Stephen S. Ashley provides consulting services on insurance claims handling. After graduating from Stanford University, he attended Hastings College of the Law, during which time he served as an extern to the late Justice Raymond Sullivan. After graduating in 1976, Mr. Ashley clerked for a year at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and then attended the University of Oxford (Wadham College), where he earned a B.C.L. (Bachelor of Civil Law) degree. He spent the next five years as an associate at the Cooley Godward law firm in San Francisco. In 1984, he wrote a treatise on the subject of insurance bad faith, Bad Faith Actions: Liability and Damages, published by the West (Thomson Reuters). The second edition appeared in 1997. In 1985, Mr. Ashley and his wife founded the Stratton Press and published the Bad Faith Law Report through 2000. Mr. Ashley taught Insurance Law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall) for 12 years.

Mr. Ashley provides consulting services to lawyers involved in insurance cases and to insurance company legal departments. His consulting activities have involved a wide variety of matters, including advising whether insureds have viable bad faith claims and how best they should pursue them. He has consulted for insurers on how best to respond to claims so as to minimize their exposure to the risk of liability for bad faith and for insurance defense counsel on defenses that they could raise on behalf of their clients.

Mr. Ashley has a particular interest in cases involving aviation and aviation insurance. He holds a commercial pilot certificate with an instrument rating and is a certified flight instructor, also with an instrument rating. He has logged more than 1,800 hours of flight time, including over 1000 hours of flight instruction to student pilots.

Mr. Ashley’s résumé and contact information are available here.