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Of Counsel
Ashleigh Aitken is an Anaheim-native, seasoned trial attorney, mom of three, community leader, and former federal prosecutor. She is a seasoned attorney and the first woman elected Mayor of Anaheim in the city’s 169-year history.
free consultationAshleigh brings more than 20 years of legal experience to her work, first as a corporate civil attorney, then as a Federal Prosecutor in the Central District of California, and now as a civil advocate at one of California’s most respected personal injury firms in the Inland Empire and Orange County.
She is Of Counsel at Aitken * Aitken * Cohn, where she specializes in complex business litigation, class actions, and major personal injury cases. She is a past president of the Orange County Bar Association, championing veterans’ rights and pro bono services for military and veteran families, and former President of the OC Women Lawyers and the Orange County Bar Association Charitable Fund. Ashleigh is a former federal prosecutor, practicing in the Los Angeles and Santa Ana Office of the United States Attorney in the Central District of California. While serving as an assistant United States attorney, she prosecuted violent crimes, including armed bank robbery, illegal firearms distribution, narcotics, fraud, child pornography, and trafficking cases. She has tried criminal cases (both jury and bench trials) and argued before the 9th Circuit.
Prior to becoming a prosecutor, Ashleigh was a civil litigator with the law firm of Morrison Foerster, LLP, specializing in complex business litigation and class action defense. While there, she tried civil cases in both federal and state courts. She began her practice at Nossaman, Guthner, Knox & Elliott, LLP, working on environmental and condemnation litigation.
Mayor Aitken is Anaheim’s 48th mayor and first woman to hold the position in the city’s 170-year history. As mayor, Aitken represents all of Anaheim’s residents and businesses, alongside six district representatives on the City Council. She’s proud to be a Girl Scout who grew up to become mayor of her hometown. She represents over 355,000 residents and 20,000 businesses, in addition to 26 million+ annual visitors. Anaheim is the 10th biggest city in California and the 55th largest city in the United States.
As Mayor, Ashleigh has listened to residents and worked hard to build affordable housing, enhance public safety, repair infrastructure, and create jobs. She also led the effort to enact a series of transparency reforms to restore public confidence in City Hall.
Her tenure has seen a 17% reduction in violent crime, and the police department is the largest in the city’s history. She has focused on wildfire and urban fire safety, with two new fire stations in progress across Anaheim. To make Anaheim more affordable, she led the Affordable Housing Initiative, supported the creation of Anaheim’s first Housing Trust, and opened new all-affordable communities, for a total of 40 all-affordable communities, 4,000 affordable units city-wide, and rental aid to 6,300+ Anaheim families. Her work on homelessness has led to an 11% reduction in the last two-years, with resources going to compassionate solutions including shelters, housing and treatment.
She serves on leadership for the US Conference of Mayor, California League of Cities, and is active with the National League of Cities, Anaheim Community Foundation, Visit Anaheim and the Anaheim Chamber.
In private practice, Ashleigh fights to get justice for her clients. Ashleigh has worked pro bono to aid homeless veterans, victims of domestic violence, expand free legal services for our veterans and military families, and protect the Orange County Fairgrounds.
Ashleigh is a volunteer Girl Scout troop leader and serves with WISEplace, a shelter
for homeless women in Santa Ana, Caterina’s Club and supports the arts through her work with Chance Theatre and the Anaheim Ballet. Her long record of community leadership includes having served on the leadership team of United Way’s End Homelessness OC and as an appointee of Governors Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom to the Orange County Fair Board. She also previously served as Chair of the Anaheim Community Services Board.
Her legal career and public service reflect a lifelong dedication to justice, equity, and uplifting the voices of the underserved. Ashleigh earned her bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Boston College and her law degree from the University of Southern California, Gould School of Law. She lives in Anaheim with her husband, Michael, their three children, and an ark of animals. She enjoys golfing, reading and volunteering with her girls.
Cases
Ashleigh has represented clients involved in complex business torts, class actions, wrongful death, and severe personal injury. She was a part of the Counsel team in the 2010 Toyota class action suit, acting as national liaison counsel between state and federal cases that resulted in largest automobile class action settlement. She represented the Vego family in Vego vs. Southern California Edison, confidential wrongful death settlement resulting in PUC fines of over $20 million. Ashleigh was also involved in an OC Fairgrounds litigation matter where she succeeded in a pro bono representation of local residents that assisted in thwarting the $100 million sale of state-owned asset.
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