Commercial litigation & defense · Bayport
Counsel for the disputes that matter to a business.
Ashcombe & Vale represents companies, their owners, and their insurers in commercial disputes, employment claims, coverage litigation, and appeals, in state and federal courts and in arbitration.
We are a litigation firm of deliberate size: six attorneys, one office, and a practice built on preparation, plain advice, and the discipline to try a case when it should be tried.
- Courts
- State and federal, trial and appellate
- Forums
- Commercial and employment arbitration
- Clients
- Companies, owners, and insurers
Practices
Six practices, one trial team
Commercial Litigation
Contract, partnership, and shareholder disputes, from the first demand letter through trial in state and federal court.
Business Torts
Claims of fraud, tortious interference, unfair competition, and misappropriation of trade secrets, brought and defended.
Employment Defense
Defense of discrimination, retaliation, wage and hour, and restrictive covenant claims, with counsel on the decisions that precede them.
Insurance Coverage
Coverage analysis, tender, and litigation for policyholders and carriers under liability, property, and professional lines.
Appeals
Briefing and argument in the appellate courts, and quiet work with trial teams to preserve the record before it is needed.
Arbitration
Commercial and employment arbitration under the major institutional rules, including enforcement and challenges to awards.
Approach
How we conduct a matter
Clients come to us with problems that are expensive, public, or personal, and often all three. These are the commitments we make at the outset of every engagement.
An early, candid assessment
Within the first weeks we tell you what the dispute is likely to cost, how long it may run, and where it could end. That view is revisited at every turn.
Partners do the work
The partner you meet stays on the matter, takes the depositions, and argues the motions. Teams are kept small on purpose.
Prepared for trial from the start
Settlement is often the right result, and it comes on better terms when the other side knows the case is ready to be tried.
Mindful of the business
Litigation competes with everything else a company has to do. We plan discovery, testimony, and reporting around your operations.
Attorneys
The partners
Margaret E. Ashcombe
Founding Partner
Commercial litigation · Business torts
Daniel R. Vale
Founding Partner
Insurance coverage · Arbitration
Priya N. Raman
Partner
Employment defense · Restrictive covenants
Insights
Recent publications
Alerts and articles from the firm’s attorneys on developments in commercial, employment, and coverage litigation.
Litigation holds that hold up: preserving the record before a dispute begins
When the duty to preserve attaches, who should receive the notice, and how messaging apps and personal devices change the answer.
Arbitration clauses after the merger: who is bound, and by which agreement?
Successor liability, conflicting dispute resolution clauses, and the threshold questions courts still decide for themselves.
Late notice and the commercial liability policy
A practical reading of notice and cooperation provisions, and the steps a business can take the day a claim arrives.
Restrictive covenants in 2026: a review for Bayport employers
What to revisit in noncompetition and nonsolicitation agreements, and how courts have treated overbroad terms.
The appeal begins at trial
Standards of review, preservation of error, and why appellate counsel belongs in the room before the verdict.
Engagement
Working with the firm
How does a new matter begin?
With a short call or written request. We gather the names of the parties, run a conflict check, and then schedule a consultation with a partner in the relevant practice.
Do you represent individuals?
Occasionally, when the matter arises from a business: owners in a partnership dispute, for example, or executives named in a lawsuit against their company.
How are fees arranged?
Most matters are billed hourly with a written budget. For some engagements we discuss fixed fees by phase or other alternative arrangements at the outset.
Can you work with our in-house team or existing counsel?
Yes. We regularly serve as trial or appellate counsel alongside general counsel and other firms, with a clear division of responsibility agreed in advance.
New matters
To discuss a matter in confidence
Call the office or send a short request. A partner reviews every inquiry, and we run a conflict check before any substantive conversation.