Ashley Stead

Ashley Stead is an attorney at McGann, Ketterman & Rioux, where she represents individuals and labor organizations in a wide range of legal matters at the local, state, and federal levels. Her practice focuses on issues arising under the National Labor Relations Act, Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), and state labor and employment laws, including the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act. Most recently, Stead helped secure a $1 million settlement in a multi-year federal ERISA case alleging wage theft in the construction industry.

Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Stead served as Senior Legal Counsel in the Office of the Senate President for the Illinois State Senate Democratic Caucus, where she advised state senators on labor and employment matters during the COVID-19 pandemic and helped craft significant legislation. She was a key architect behind legislative packages that created incentives for affordable housing development, expanded Illinois' bereavement law, provided graduate assistants the right to collectively bargain, strengthened the Equal Pay Act, and increased workplace protections against sexual harassment and discrimination following the #MeToo movement, including help author the Illinois Workplace Transparency Act.

Ms. Stead actively contributes to the Women's Bar Association of Illinois (WBAI), serving on the Board of Directors and Legislative and Political Action Committees to advance paid family medical leave policy. She provides pro bono legal services to not-for-profit entities serving vulnerable workforces and previously served as Chair of the Labor & Employment Committee at the Chicago Bar Association.

Ms. Stead graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a B.A. in Political Science and received her J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where she was a member of the National Moot Court team and Student Director of the Life After Innocence legal clinic.