Beattie B. Ashmore has practiced law in South Carolina for more than 35 years. He had the good fortune to be born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, as did his parents and grandparents. His grandfather was a pharmacist in downtown Greenville, and his parents were high school sweethearts. His other grandfather owned the Balentine Packing Company, a meat packing plant which operated for generations in downtown Greenville. He saw in his upbringing many important values and a reason to let his roots settle in Greenville.
After graduating from the College of Charleston in 1981 and the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1986, Ashmore clerked for bankruptcy judges for four years before becoming a Federal prosecutor for six years. He has been in private practice since 1996.
Stephanie Gray graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Marquette University and received her Juris Doctor Degree from Marquette University Law School. While in law school, she was a circuit court judicial intern for The Honorable Annette Kingsland Ziegler, who is now Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. She is admitted to the bars of both South Carolina and Wisconsin, the District of South Carolina, the Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin, and has been admitted pro hac vice before numerous State and Federal courts.
Stephanie Gray has been practicing law since 2006 and joined Beattie B. Ashmore, P.A. in 2010. She is accomplished in analyzing and briefing complex legal issues, focusing on motion practice, discovery, and appellate advocacy across numerous substantive areas, including false claims, statutory interpretation, personal injury, criminal law, and constitutional violations. She has served as the principal drafter of briefs to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, South Carolina Supreme Court, and South Carolina Court of Appeals. She has also served as second chair trial counsel to Beattie B. Ashmore. Prior to joining the firm, Stephanie Gray focused on insurance defense, litigating cases involving coverage disputes, construction defect, contractual indemnification, pollution, asbestos, bad faith, trademark infringement, and copyright infringement. She has also advised corporate clients on non-litigation matters, including privacy law compliance, employee termination, and document retention.
From 1990 through 1996, Mr. Ashmore was a Federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Carolina. He spent the first three years in the civil division defending the United States and its agencies in all areas of civil litigation and trials, including wrongful death, medical malpractice, various tort actions, and asset forfeiture. During the three years that followed, Mr. Ashmore served in the criminal division, where he prosecuted hundreds of cases, including bank fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, mortgage fraud, bankruptcy fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and drug conspiracies.
He received a special commendation from the Director of the FBI in 1993 for the successful conviction at the trial of two defendants in a multimillion-dollar white-collar fraud case. In his last year as Assistant United States Attorney, Mr. Ashmore had the highest number of convictions in the State of South Carolina with more than 160 convictions.
Mr. Ashmore has represented hundreds of individuals in State and Federal criminal courts in cases from DUI to murder. He has significant experience in white-collar crimes, including securities fraud, healthcare fraud, investment schemes, environmental crimes, and long-term government investigations of individuals and corporations. In 2009, his client, accused of a $12 million mail fraud scheme, was found not guilty on all six counts after a four-day jury trial in Federal court in Anderson, South Carolina.
Mr. Ashmore has argued before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the State of South Carolina Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. He obtained a reversal of a voluntary manslaughter charge in the State of South Carolina Supreme Court and was lead counsel in the underlying murder trial.
Mr. Ashmore has had other not guilty verdicts and cases dismissed prior to trial, including a two day suppression hearing in Federal court which dealt with an unconstitutional search on Interstate 85. The indictment was dismissed.
Mr. Ashmore has significant civil trial experience in State and Federal courts. His experience includes defending an international mining company against 975 individual lawsuits; an oil company that discharged 1 million gallons of diesel fuel into the Reedy River in a class action and related criminal case; and a trucking company in an $18 million settlement in three Federal wrongful death lawsuits. He recently represented an individual in a three-week Federal civil trial involving allegations of healthcare fraud.
Mr. Ashmore has been a featured speaker at numerous legal conferences. He has represented clients in several states and has been associated as local counsel on numerous occasions by some of the largest law firms in the nation.
Mr. Ashmore has been appointed by four South Carolina Federal judges to serve as the Receiver in some of the largest pyramid schemes ever prosecuted in Federal court in South Carolina. In that role, he has assembled a staff and brought hundreds of Federal lawsuits. To date, he has disbursed over $55 million dollars to the victims of these fraudulent schemes and has secured some of the largest returns in the nation.
In 2006, Mr. Ashmore was appointed by the South Carolina Supreme Court to the Commission on Lawyer Conduct, dealing with disciplinary proceedings against members of the South Carolina Bar. In 2007, he was appointed to the Upstate Citizens Screening Committee, which evaluates judicial candidates for the South Carolina Courts. He continues to serve on these committees.
He is the past president of the Greenville Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a life member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. In 2022, he was elected President of the South Carolina Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, which has hundreds of South Carolina Federal practice lawyers as members.
More than 35 years of criminal trial experience handling State and Federal court prosecutions from DUI to murder and securities fraud and white collar cases.
From auto accidents to wrongful death, representing both individuals and families, with significant experience dealing with insurance companies.
Handled dozens of State and Federal post-conviction relief cases and appeals. Obtained successful relief through new trials and reversals of convictions.
Representing individuals to corporations as plaintiffs and defense counsel in wrongful death, class action, personal injury, contract disputes, and much more.
