Ashton is senior associate general counsel at the NAACP. He works to identify and develop litigation strategies to achieve desired outcomes with respect to civil rights issues in the areas of voting rights, educational opportunity, economic empowerment, criminal justice, and health equity including environmental justice. He also works on all manners of in-house matters for the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the nation.

He was previously a litigation partner at the global law firm of DLA Piper, where he practiced for approximately 20 years.Thereafter, he was a litigation partner at Baxter, Baker, Sidle, Conn & Jones, P.A., in Baltimore, practicing in commercial, real estate, and tort litigation.

He has been an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and the University of Baltimore School of Law. He has been recognized by the NAACP with the Champions of Justice Award. He was a visiting lecturer for a course in legal writing at the University of Zambia School of Law. He was a teacher at McDonogh School in Maryland and a guidance counselor with Baltimore County Public Schools. Ashton received his BA from Howard University, his MA from the University of the District of Columbia, and is a 1997 graduate of Maryland Carey Law.

He has served on the UMBF Board of Trustees since 2017.