THE FIRM
Associated Legal Counsel is a Charlotte law firm that works primarily • by associating with lawyers and law firms and • as outside counsel for corporate legal departments.
♦ Our work is focused on assisting with commercial transactions and legal issues involving computers, the internet, and related systems (information technology or IT) – including • contracts for buying, selling, licensing, subscribing, or developing IT systems and software • assistance and advice on strategy, policy, and compliance related to information technology and e-commerce • work on data privacy and information security.
♦ The firm is also able to serve as • conflicts counsel • referral counsel and • contract counsel.
♦ Although the firm primarily works with lawyers, law firms, and legal departments, it also represents clients directly on a selective basis.
THE PRACTICE
Charlotte attorney Ashe Lockhart practices in two primary areas: • information technology law and • corporate, commercial, and business law. His work includes a broad range of commercial transactions, especially those related to use of computers and the internet. Ashe has over 25 years of experience with technology transactions including development, licensing, cloud and SaaS subscriptions, outsourcing and managed services, tech transfer, cyber and information security, and data privacy. He also assists clients with business contracts, organizing new businesses, financial transactions such as commercial loans and raising capital, mergers & acquisitions, strategic alliances, and joint ventures.
EXPERIENCE
Following graduation from law school, Ashe was a law clerk to Burley Mitchell, Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. He then practiced in business, government relations, and litigation with The Sanford Holshouser Law Firm in Raleigh. Ashe returned to Charlotte in 1999 and started Lockhart + Hoffman to work with startups and tech companies. Two years later, he merged his firm with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice (now known as Womble Bond Dickinson), where he continued to focus on tech and corporate law. After several years in “big law,” he transitioned to a boutique law firm, where he practiced for 12 years before he became Assistant General Counsel at Compass Group USA to head up their tech and privacy law work for their North American operations.
Ashe’s diverse background includes six years financial services with a year in insurance and five years in banking following completion of the management training program at First Union National Bank (now Wells Fargo).
Ashe served in the U.S. Army as an electronic warfare intelligence operator, Spanish linguist, and paratrooper. In 1983, he was deployed with the 82nd Airborne Division in the Invasion of Grenada (Operation Urgent Fury). He was later assigned to work with the National Security Agency on the development of a special electronic mission aircraft intelligence system (Crazy Horse) and later deployed to Central America to conduct intelligence operations with the system under the direction of the Army’s Intelligence and Security Command during the height of the Cold War.
EDUCATION
Ashe received his • juris doctor in 1997 from the UNC School of Law • BA in 1988 from UNC-Charlotte with a major in History and a minor in International Studies • and certificate in Spanish language in 1982 from the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey, California. He is licensed to practice law in North Carolina.
PERSONAL
Ashe is • a native Charlottean • a fourth generation North Carolina lawyer • married to a girl from Myrtle Beach who teaches fourth grade in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools • a car nut • an aspiring pilot • and he claims to be a road cyclist and yogi, but there is scant evidence of those last two claims in recent years.