Associate Attorney Ashley Emerson grew up in Ashford, Connecticut, a town, she says, that “has more cows than people.” She first became interested in law during high school. “I had an amazing teacher,” she says. “He had this elective law class. It was so interesting, ethically and morally. Everything about it was fascinating. Before that I wanted to be a vet. But I realized you couldn’t just specialize in one type of animal, you had to be a vet for all animals. I didn’t want to deal with creepy animals like snakes and other things.” She went onto undergraduate studies at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. “I was looking for a school that was small and liberal arts,” she says. “I also wanted to be somewhere I could be really involved in campus life. It was a Division III School, so I could play volleyball and sing a cappella. Being a student was my first priority, of course, but I wanted to find a balance.”