Ashley was a summer intern at VLJ seven years ago, getting her first taste of what it's like to be a busy practitioner. She learned about real pleadings and dealt with attorneys, courts and clients in bankruptcy and matrimonial clinics.

"It was a terrific experience," she said. "I learned so much."

Now, as an associate in the Roseland office of one of New Jersey's premiere family law firms, Snyder & Sarno, Ashley has her own busy practice assisting clients with matrimonial, child support, domestic violence and nuptial agreement issues.

One case has attracted wide interest among family practitioners. She is working with partner Angelo Sarno on an appeal that will give the state Supreme Court an opportunity to settle a thorny issue in palimony law.

A 2010 state statute says that support agreements among unmarried parties must be in writing, but lower courts have differed over whether the law should be applied retroactively. In the case before the high court, Maeker v. Ross, the firm is arguing that the couple's oral agreement is enforceable because it was made before the enactment of the statute.

Ashley got her introduction to family law when she worked at VLJ. She was ending her first year at Seton Hall University School of Law and looking for work in New Jersey.  At the annual Public Interest Law Fair at New York University, Ashley met with VLJ and secured the internship.

Besides gaining valuable know- how that summer, Ashley made contacts with people who guided her. She obtained a summer associate job the next year at McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter in Morristown. After graduation she clerked for Thomas Zampino, a family court judge in Essex County. Then she returned to McElroy Deutsch as a first year associate.

She practiced complex commercial litigation there for a year, but she was more interested in family law. She joined Snyder & Sarno in 2012. 

How did VLJ help Ashley toward a successful career? For starters, it gave her an entr�e into the real world of law, she said. She learned to work with pleadings, interact with court personnel and assist volunteer lawyers by gathering treatises and documents, an important task at VLJ because volunteers often agree to take cases in fields outside their normal practice area.

VLJ's matrimonial clinic gave her a sense of the substantive issues that she now handles on a regular basis.

Most importantly, though, was the experience of working with clients and understanding how to interact with them.

"Clients who come to you are often at very low points in their lives," says Ashley. "I learned at VLJ how important it is to deal with that."

VLJ also wishes to thank Snyder & Sarno for their recent donation of Family Law books and resources that will benefit innumerable clients and volunteers.