HARRISBURG (Nov. 16, 2022) — Mark R. Ashton, retired partner at Fox Rothschild LLP, will receive the 2023 Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) Family Law Section Eric Turner Memorial Award during the section’s Winter Meeting, Jan. 13-15, 2023, in Hershey.
The Eric Turner Memorial Award honors a jurist who is dedicated to the practice of family law and who serves as a mentor and teacher to fellow jurists.
Active in the PBA, Ashton is past chair of the PBA Family Law Section. In his capacity as chair, he testified in 2017 before the Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee on proposed changes to the law that would affect how support obligations are imposed. He regularly contributes to and serves as an editor for the section’s Pennsylvania Family Lawyer newsletter. He has taught and written materials for more than 80 CLE programs sponsored by the PBA and its education arm, the Pennsylvania Bar Institute.
A past president of the Doris J. Freed American Inn of Court, Ashton served on the first organizing committee for the Inn and acted as its secretary/treasurer from 1994-99 before being named president in 2000. Ashton’s other legal community activities include sitting on the Joint State Government Commission and serving as past chair of the Chester County Bar Association Domestic Relations Section and past director of the Montgomery Bar Association.
In his local community, Ashton is a past president of Historic Yellow Springs Inc., an organization that works to preserve the history, art and culture of the living village of Yellow Springs in Chester County. He recently curated an exhibit of the architectural work by Thomas U. Walter that was displayed at the Altman Gallery at Historic Yellow Springs.
A frequent lecturer and author, Ashton focuses on tax aspects of family law agreements, litigation of child custody disputes, the valuation of closely held businesses and executive stock option plans. He has written on legal and historical topics for the PBA; the American Bar Association; and the Chester County, Montgomery and Philadelphia bar associations.
Instrumental in opening Fox Rothschild’s first office in suburban Philadelphia in 1990, Ashton retired as partner on July 31 after 32 years with the firm; he continues to write for the firm’s Pennsylvania family law blog. Early in his career, Ashton clerked for Judge Mason Avrigian at the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas. Ashton then helped open Abrahams and Loewenstein in Norristown, and later chaired the Domestic Relations Group at Riley, Riper, Hollin & Colagreco in Paoli. He has litigated in 14 of Pennsylvania’s counties and argued more than 70 cases in its appellate courts.
Ashton received a J.D. from John Marshall Law School in Chicago, and a B.A. from George Washington University, Elliot School of International Affairs in Washington, D.C.