Master Lawyer Ashlea SCHWARZ

Ashlea's practice is focused on the complexity of issues and a rigorous attention to detail. Covering a wide range of practice areas, her cases involve multifaceted, multijurisdictional commercial litigation, often with multiple parties. Ashlea excels in high-stakes, fact-intensive cases, such as:Toxic tort actions arising from community exposure to chemicals, particularly those involving migrant farmworkers, agricultural laborers, and other vulnerable populations.Large-scale product liability litigation, representing hundreds or thousands of people against multinational companies to recover damages for bodily injury, property damage, or financial losses.High-stakes commercial litigation, such as breach of contract claims, breach of fiduciary duty, intellectual property and trade secrets, fraud, and misrepresentation.Adverse actions to recover funds for bankruptcy estates to repay creditors after corporate malfeasance defrauds a large group of individuals, including claims for fraudulent transfers, conspiracy, breach of fiduciary duties, debt instrument reclassification into equity, equitable subordination, and director/officer liability.Wrongful deaths caused by negligence, complacency, and lack of care; often, the victims of these egregious acts are those who most need our protection.The majority of Ashlea’s cases are national in scope, in which she works with highly respected co-counsel teams in multidistrict litigation before state and federal courts. Ashlea specializes in cases involving extremely complex, often novel scientific and medical issues. She has managed the day-to-day responsibilities of over 60 class actions.In 2014, Ashlea was named one of Missouri Lawyers' Weekly's “Up & Coming Lawyers,” an award recognizing lawyers under 40 who demonstrate excellence in the legal profession and in their commitment to their communities. Ashlea has been named a Rising Star by the Kansas City Business Journal every year since 2015.