Lightfoot Partner Ashby Pate Selected for Leadership Alabama Class XXXV

September 4, 2025

Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC partner R. Ashby Pate has been named to the 35th class of Leadership Alabama. 

Leadership Alabama is a nonprofit organization that brings together 60 to 70 established leaders from across the state each year for four two-day retreats. Through a series of issue-focused forums and community visits, class members explore the challenges and opportunities shaping Alabama’s future. The program fosters relationships, broadens perspectives and encourages participants to act individually and collectively to move Alabama forward.

“It is a privilege to join this year’s class and to learn alongside such an accomplished group of leaders,” Pate said. “I look forward to engaging with issues facing Alabama and exploring how we can work together to help move our state forward.”

Pate brings distinctive experience to his practice at Lightfoot. He previously served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Palau, where he helped design the island nation's first-ever jury trial system. Pate focuses his practice on international disputes, appellate work and commercial and medical device litigation, routinely handling the firm's most complex matters.