The Roaring Fork Valley’s new public defender is not shy about her goals. In addition to raising her daughter as a “mountain baby,” Ashley Andrews is dedicated to ensuring that her clients get the same caliber of representation as anyone else in the criminal justice system.
“There is such a huge wealth disparity here,” she acknowledged. “I guess my goal would be that … the people who are at the bottom of that, that they get the same quality of representation as the people at the very top who can hire the attorneys to fly in. I think that I can do that.”
A lot of being able to maintain that standard comes down to caseload management. Unlike a private attorney, who chooses which clients to accept, a public defender must take on every case assigned. Compared to her tenure as a Colorado state public defender in Denver, her first six weeks in the valley working for the 9th Judicial District have felt downright refreshing.
“I think in Denver, I had 270 felony cases when I left,” she said. “I think I have 70 now, and it’s a mix of felonies and misdemeanors. I forget what the American Bar Association recommends for a caseload, I think it’s like 30 — it’s really low. So we’re still above that, but it feels manageable and it feels like I can effectively represent everyone that I’m representing, which is what they deserve, so that feels good.”
Andrews enrolled in the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder in 2009 after moving to Denver two years earlier to participate in Teach for America. It was as a law student that she fell in love twice: with her now husband and with the public defender’s office.
“[I] met my husband in torts class, which was both of our worst grades in law school,” she laughed. “I like to think it’s because we were distracted, but that’s probably not the reason.”
As for the idea of becoming a public defender, that wasn’t Andrews’ initial intention in her legal pursuits.
“I majored in Latin American studies because I wanted to study abroad twice,” she chuckled, recalling her undergraduate experience at Penn State. “‘What am I going to do with my … degree and my Latin American studies?’ I thought maybe [Washington] D.C. and doing international law.”
But then she participated in a criminal defense clinic with Ann England, a respected law professor and former public defender. There was no turning back for Andrews, especially after her first time in the courtroom.
“When they take pleas, they ask you what your highest level of education is,” she recalled, adding that her previous work with Teach for America made her take particular note of the defendants’ answers. “Everyone was like, ‘Oh, some high school or GED.’ And I was like, ‘This is what happens to all the people we fail in the education system: let’s push them over here and not even worry about them.’ So that kind of resonated with me.”
She subsequently accepted an internship with the public defender’s office.
“I’ve been doing it ever since,” she smiled. “I felt like it was more fun than anything else you could do with a law degree, and I still think it is. I have friends that have been doing this as long as I have — seven years — and still don’t go to trial … because they’re the low men on the totem pole, still. And I get to do everything; it’s great.”
The courtroom is not the only arena for a public defender’s fight, she offered. There’s also public — and by extension, clients’ — perception about the role.
“I don’t want people to feel like … you must not be any good because you work for the public defender’s office. There is that misconception a lot — maybe less so here than in Denver.” she said. “I’m all about sort of rooting for the underdog.”
But in addition to the actual work, there’s another obvious perk of the public defender’s office for Andrews.
“It is appealing to me to not have to deal with money. I hate talking about money,” she said. “I used to work at Panera Bread, and I felt uncomfortable telling people how much their bill was because I thought it was too expensive! I would not be good at billing and telling people that they owe money.”
When she’s not settling into her new caseload, Andrews is busy nesting with her family. Even though she and her husband aren’t yet sure where their future house will be, the Roaring Fork Valley already feels like home.
“It’s like, ‘why didn’t we do this sooner?’” she said. “Everyone has been bend-over-backwards welcoming.”
Perhaps nobody is more excited about the move than her daughter.
“She comes home from preschool filthy, which is great. It’s what I wanted, for her to be able to take risks,” Andrews said. “Her preschool, starting in January, they do ski lessons every Monday. She’s two and a half. She’s going to be a better skier than I am in two years, so that’s amazing.”