ASHLEY L. FALLS

ashley@falls-legal.com

Ashley Falls is a Partner with Falls Legal and has represented thousands of employees in class, collective, and individual actions in both state and federal courts and before governmental agencies. She has helped workers recover millions of dollars in back-pay wages and penalties for violations of state and federal laws.

Many of the cases Ashley has handled have resulted in significant published decisions on behalf of employees. She has served as lead plaintiffs’ counsel in many complex class and collective actions, including serving as lead counsel in one of South Carolina’s largest restaurant related FLSA tip credit cases that resulted in a cash recovery of $2.7 million dollars for more than 3,500 servers and bartenders across the country. Additionally, Ashley has successfully handled appellate level cases before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. Ashley was also a member of the Falls Legal trial team responsible for obtaining a federal jury verdict in the amount of $650,000.00 for an employee of one of South Carolina’s largest hospitals in a Title VII retaliation case. 

Ashley’s clients value her personal investment in their cases and aggressive representation all the way through trial, if necessary. Whenever Ashley accepts a new case, she litigates with significant care and with an eye to defending against summary judgment and proceeding to trial.

Ashley began her career working for the federal government for six years where she drafted more than 1,000 appeal level decisions on behalf of federal administrative law judges in Social Security disability cases. She earned both her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the College of Charleston and her law degree from the Charleston School of Law where she was the recipient of the CALI Award (highest GPA) in Advanced Legal Writing. Ashley has also served on the South Carolina Bar Resolution of Fee Disputes Board.

Ashley is an active member of the National Employment Lawyers Association (“NELA”), the nation’s largest organization composed of plaintiff side employment lawyers. She is also a member of the South Carolina Bar Employment and Labor Law Section and the Charleston County Bar Association. Ashley regularly contributes to various online and print legal publications specific to the employment and labor law field and her writings have appeared in Law 360, South Carolina Lawyers Weekly, and the South Carolina Bar Employment Law Newsletter. Ashley is a regular speaker on employment law topics at state and national employment law conferences. 

Ashley has been selected to either the Super Lawyers list or the “Rising Star” list by Thompson Reuters each year since 2017. Additionally, Ashley has been selected to the U.S. News & World Report “Best Lawyers in America” rankings for her work representing individuals in employment law each year since 2021. Ashley was named “Lawyer of the Year” for her work in representing individuals in employment law in 2023, which is an accolade awarded to a single lawyer in each practice area and community each year.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS & SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

2022 SC Association of Justice Annual Convention – Hilton Head, SC: “Mediation in SC Employment Law Cases”

2021 NC/SC Employment Law Conference – Charleston, SC: “Wage & Hour Law in the Era of COVID-19”

2020 South Carolina Bar Convention – Columbia, SC: “Bringing & Defending Wage & Hour Claims (Including Class & Collective Actions)”

2018 National Employment Lawyers Annual Convention – Chicago, Illinois: “The Nuts and Bolts of A Wage & Hour Case from Intake to Resolution”

McLeod, Mayci – WCBB News 2, “More Than 70 Employees Suing Wild Dunes Resort.” Jan. 28, 2016.

“New Fourth Circuit En Banc Decision Solidifies Changing Landscape,” South Carolina Employment & Labor Law Newsletter, (Summer 2015).

RESULTS

$2.7 million dollar settlement of class and collective action lawsuit on behalf of tipped employees against a national restaurant chain

$900,000 settlement for overtime violations

$750,000 settlement for tip credit violations

$650,000 federal jury verdict awarding compensatory and punitive damages for retaliation under Title VII

$600,000 settlement on behalf of cable installation technicians alleging unpaid overtime claims

$455,000 settlement of collective action lawsuit on behalf of tipped employees alleging that they were required to perform excessive “side work”  while being paid at a sub-minimum tip credit wage

$450,000 settlement of class action lawsuit on behalf of employees alleging Title VII disparate impact claims in hiring process

REPRESENTATIVE CASES

Weckesser v. Knight Enters. S.E., LLC, 391 F. Supp. 3d 529 (D.S.C. 2019) (granting final FLSA certification of overtime claim for cable installation workers classified as independent contractors)

Robinson v. Carolina First Bank NA, No. 7:18-cv-02927-JDA, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103831, at *44 (D.S.C. June 21, 2019) (granting final certification and approving settlement of class action involving disparate impact claims relating to credit and background checks; “The attorneys at Falls Legal, LLC who prosecuted this case are experienced class action and employment lawyers with good reputations among the class action and employment bars.”)

Hart v. Barbeque Integrated, Inc., 299 F. Supp. 3d 762 (D.S.C. 2017) (denying motion to dismiss and granting conditional certification of hybrid collective and class action asserting claims under FLSA and various state wage laws for tip credit violations on behalf of thousands of tipped workers at nationwide restaurant chain)

Turner v. Republic Services, 268 F. Supp. 3d 831 (D.S.C. 2017) (denying employer’s summary judgment motion and granting conditional certification of collective and class action brought on behalf of waste disposal drivers paid a purported day rate alleging regular rate overtime violations)

Irvine v. Destination Wild Dunes Mgmt., 106 F. Supp. 3d 729 (D.S.C. May 26, 2015) (denying employer’s motion to dismiss dual jobs regulation and 80/20 violation claims, which were issues of first impression in the Fourth Circuit)

El-Reedy v. Abacus Tech Corp., 273 F. Supp. 3d 596 (D.S.C. 2017) (denying employer motion to dismiss claims in Title VII harassment case)

Weckesser v. Knight Enters. S.E., LLC, 735 F. App’x 816 (4th Cir. 2018) (Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirming district court’s order denying employer’s motion to compel arbitration of class and collective action brought under FLSA and SCPWA following appeal and oral argument)