Ashley Austin Edwards

Hon. Ashley A. Edwards is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of North Carolina in Charlotte, appointed on April 30, 2024, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She serves on the Artificial Intelligence Task Force established by the Fourth Circuit Executive’s Office, as well as the Next Generation Committee and New Member Committee of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. Prior to assuming office, Judge Edwards practiced for 14 years at Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, where she was a partner and the practice group leader of its Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Group. She was admitted to practice before all U.S. Bankruptcy and District Courts in North Carolina and Georgia, as well as before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Judge Edwards is Board Certified in Business Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification (ABC). She was honored as an ABI “40 Under 40” in 2019 and was recognized by her peers for many years with rankings in Chambers USA, Business North Carolina Legal Elite and The Best Lawyers in America. She also was named as one of the 40 Under 40 Business Leaders in 2022 by the Charlotte Business Journal. In her legal practice, Judge Edwards served on the advisory board of ABI’s Southeast Bankruptcy Workshop, on the Next Generation Committee of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, and on the leadership team of the North Carolina Bar Association Bankruptcy Section. Additionally, she served as a member of Parker Poe’s Pro Bono Committee and averaged more than 80 hours of pro bono services each year with a focus on work with North Carolina’s Guardian ad litem program, through which she represented abused and neglected children. From 2009-10, Judge Edwards clerked for Hon. J. Craig Whitley (ret.) in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina. She received her B.A. cum laude in 2005 from Wake Forest University and her J.D. in 2009 from Emory University.