RES IPSA ONLINE • FALL 2009
STORY:
All in the Family (continued)

A Change in Direction

Bob Scott ’75 remembers taking his daughter, Ashlea Scott-Meggers ’04, to meet a female judge when Ashlea was “just a kid.” “The judge took her into chambers and talked with her about the law,” says Bob. “I wanted Ashlea to understand an important message at an early age: women can do anything men can do.”

When Ashlea graduated from Loyola Marymount University and decided to attend California Western, she had a clear career path in mind; her goal was to earn an MBA from Loyola Marymount after attending California Western. “I didn’t attend law school intending to be a lawyer,” says Ashlea. “I wanted to use my law degree to go into business.”

Her ideas about her career changed, however, after she worked as a law clerk for her father’s firm, the Law Offices of Robert K. Scott. For the past 30 years, Bob Scott and his colleagues have sued insurance companies on behalf of both individual consumers and businesses. This area of law is known as “insurance bad faith,” and Scott’s highly successful firm litigates insurance bad faith actions in connection with denials of claims ranging from medical insurance to liability insurance to entertainment industry insurance.

When Ashlea clerked at the firm, she says she immediately connected with the work and with the opportunity to interact with her father on a professional level.

“By the time I graduated from business school in 2007, I thought: I really enjoy what I’m doing and I enjoy working with my father,” says Ashlea. “It is really great to work with a family member, and to spend so much time working with someone you respect so much.”

Ashlea handles the intake work for the firm, talking with prospective clients about their cases and needs and determining if the firm can help them.

This summer, Bob and Ashlea were able to venture outside of the firm to pursue their common interest in the law and California Western. They traveled with Dean Steven R. Smith to Galway, Ireland, to review the school’s international program in Ireland and had a rare opportunity to meet U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who was lecturing in Galway. For Bob Scott, who has served on California Western’s Board of Trustees for 25 years, the experience was yet another opportunity to volunteer for the school, and he was delighted to see Ashlea’s ongoing interest in the life of California Western.

“Ashlea always felt the same way I did - law school was one of the best experiences individually in both of our lives,” says Bob.

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