Ashley Akers

Ashley Akers is a litigation attorney in Holland & Knight's Tysons office. Ms. Akers' practice focuses on government enforcement actions, internal investigations and complex civil litigation, and she has extensive experience handling complex litigation in civil and criminal matters.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Akers served as a senior trial counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Division and as a special assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. After joining the Civil Division through the Attorney General's honors program, she led high-stakes litigation cases across multiple federal courts, serving as first chair in numerous trials. Ms. Akers managed all aspects of pre-trial litigation, including taking and defending depositions, arguing dispositive motions on a broad range of procedural and substantive issues and conducting written discovery. She also led dozens of large-scale commercial fraud investigations and worked closely with federal law enforcement and regulatory agencies.

In addition to her civil practice, Ms. Akers has investigated and tried a range of federal criminal cases, including those involving the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), conspiracy, wire fraud, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) conspiracy, assault, witness tampering, obstruction of justice and domestic terrorism. She has managed complex e-discovery in highly sensitive cases and presented cases to federal grand juries. Ms. Akers has also handled international trade matters, including litigating before the U.S. Court of International Trade, and leading a high-priority DOJ task force to combat international trade fraud. She is an accomplished appellate lawyer who has argued 26 cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

In addition to her legal practice, Ms. Akers was a faculty lecturer at the DOJ's Trial Advocacy Seminar, one of the department's premier training courses. She also regularly trained federal agents, attorneys and agency personnel across the executive branch on a wide range of topics, including fraud investigations and litigation best practices.

Prior to joining the DOJ, Ms. Akers clerked for the Honorable N. Randy Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

While in law school, Ms. Akers was on the executive board of the Kansas Law Review and was honored as a national moot court champion and recipient of multiple academic and leadership honors.

Not yet admitted to Virginia Bar; admitted to Missouri Bar only and practicing under supervision of lawyers licensed to practice in Virginia.