Ashley M. Simonsen 

Ashley M. Simonsen is a partner in Covington & Burling LLP’s class action and mass torts practice, where she has successfully defended clients in the technology, financial services and consumer products industries. She specializes in ending or derailing complaints on early dispositive motions.

Among her clients: Afterpay Ltd., Aristocrat Technologies, Inc., Capital One Financial Corp., City National Bank, The Clorox Co., Intuit Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Meta Platforms, Inc., Mondelez International, Inc., Navient Corp., OpenSea and PayPal Holdings, Inc.

Simonsen joined Covington in 2014 after clerking for U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin in the Southern District of New York and Judge Barrington D. Parker, Jr. at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Both clerkships were inspirational, she said. “With Judge Scheindlin, we were doing a lot of cases as part of the fallout from the financial crisis, and that fit with what I’d learned in an earlier job with Lehman Brothers.”

And Judge Parker had some wise words that have stayed with her. “He’d tell us, ‘It’s a privilege to get to spend your days reading, writing and thinking.’ That applies as I work on these fascinating cases here at Covington.”

Simonsen led a team of Covington lawyers that secured multiple wins for Facebook Inc. in a false advertising class action over claims the social networking site misrepresents that advertisers won’t be charged for clicks on their ads from fake accounts. dotStrategy Co. v. Facebook Inc., 3:20-cv-00170 (N.D. Cal., filed Jan. 8, 2020).

After narrowing the plaintiff’s claims from more than 40 alleged misrepresentations to three, Simonsen’s team defeated class certification and an ensuing petition challenging the ruling. The team then won summary judgment on the grounds that the plaintiff had no evidence it was charged for any invalid clicks. In November 2022, Covington sealed the win with an affirmance at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Also, Simonsen co-leads a team that serves as national lead counsel to Meta Platforms Inc. as it faces more than 300 personal injury and public nuisance suits filed across the U.S. against various social media companies. The plaintiffs are school districts and the parents of teens who allegedly became addicted to apps such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.

They claim the defendants designed unreasonably dangerous or defective products. The cases have been centralized in the Northern District. In re Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, 4:22-cv-03047 (N.D. Cal., Oct. 6, 2022).

Simonsen has filed a motion to dismiss. “We argue that the product liability claims fail because they challenge interactive communications services, not products,” she said. A second dismissal motion “will address Section 230 and the First Amendment,” she added.

“I have a very strong record on motions to dismiss,” she said. “I absolutely love winning those for clients.”

— John Roemer