The sun was hot, the air still, and there
was nothing but Florida scrub in all
directions. An occasional bird call broke
the stillness.
The foreman invited Kimberly Ashby
to take a look around. More than once,
Ashby’s head hit the roof as they bounced
in his truck over ruts and gullies. Near the
end of the drive, the foreman pointed in the
distance to a lone cow in the field.
Ashby often visits properties whose
owners she represents, but few involve
seeing the project in its original state.
“It was a blast,” Ashby says of her first
view of what would become Grande Lakes
Resort. A destination within the tourist
mecca of Orlando, the 500-acre ultra-luxurious facility now features two hotels
with their associated pools, spas and golf
courses, clustered near Shingle Creek, part
of the headwaters of the Everglades.
Representing the developers, Ashby
saw the project—the largest of its kind in
the nation when it opened in 2003—from
shovel to grand opening.
She’s been called one of the brightest
construction attorneys in the state, if
not the most conventional. For starters,
most of her colleagues are male. She also
She keeps listening after the case is
over, too. “I just got off the phone with a
client I’ve had for more than 25 years,”
she says during a conversation in the
office conference room. “They were in
another jurisdiction and didn’t know who
else to call. It’s not something I’ll make
any money on. But I can go home tonight
knowing my former client had a better day
than they would have because I was able
to help them.”
On the appellate side of her practice,
Ashby is drawn to the logic of the process,
calling it “the purest form of the law. I want
to be the best appellate attorney I can be
and stay sharp as a trial lawyer.”
She has handled more than 100 cases
in the state’s 5th District Court of Appeal.
A recent case was Earth Trades, Inc. v. T&G
Corporation, involving a dispute between a
general contractor, represented by Ashby;
and a subcontractor and its surety bond
company. “We received a unanimous vote
in our favor from that court, which I savor
because such unanimous rulings are rare,”
says Ashby.
GROWING UP IN VERO BEACH, Ashby
envisioned footlights and stage doors
in her future. The law won out, but for
nine years, she has been able to live a
small part of her dream with the Orlando
Shakespeare Theater.
As part of a mock trial annual fundraiser
for the arts organization, she and “opposing
counsel” spoof one of the season’s plays.
Over the years, she’s argued the state’s case
when Shylock appealed his sentence (that
he must give his fortune to his daughter
and convert to Christianity) in The Merchant
of Venice; prosecuted Friar Laurence for
involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of
Romeo and Juliet; and argued at Hamlet’s
sanity hearing.
It’s “totally improv,” she says. And in
costume. The late John Hamilton, an
appellate attorney at Foley & Lardner, was
a longtime opponent; the mock trial series
now bears his name. Nicholas A. Shannin,
founder of Shannin Law Firm in Orlando,
has been Ashby’s partner in theatrical
crime for the past couple of years.
The other participants are professional
Shakespearean actors who stay in
In mock court,
Ashby, with Orlando
Sentinel columnist
Scott Maxwell
and attorney Nick
Shannin, play Seinfeld
characters playing
Shakespearean
characters from Love’s
Labour’s Lost. She’s
Elaine, Shannin is
George, and Maxwell
is the judge.
serves as a guardian ad litem protecting
at-risk children, runs marathons, paints
landscapes and channels Martha
Stewart in the kitchen. Oh, and she hauls
Shakespearean characters into court.
Ed Baxa, a fellow construction attorney
who has the office next to hers at Foley &
Lardner, is not the only person to call her a
Renaissance woman.
They’ve known each other for nearly 30
years, he says, working on cases together
and against each other during the 18 years
Ashby spent at Akerman before moving to
Foley in 2016.
“She’s really unique in her combination
of appellate and construction law and her
practical knowledge of both,” he says. “Her
unusually deep appreciation of the law is
a real asset. She can craft really creative
solutions to problems.”
On many occasions, especially in the
past, says Baxa, she has been the only
woman on the job site. “It didn’t faze her
in the least,” he says. “She’s so inquisitive,
and she acquires knowledge so rapidly.”
For Ashby, construction law is all about
problem-solving and listening. “People
come to terms a lot quicker when they
believe you’re listening to them,” she says.
