Chief Operating Officer & Family Law Attorney
A father came to Zachary Ashby afraid that he was losing his children. He had struggled with addiction and was working to put his life back together. But rebuilding his relationship with his children was proving harder than getting sober.
He needed more than an attorney who would argue that he deserved another chance.
Zachary helped him gather evidence of his recovery, document the steps he was taking, and present that progress to the opposing party. The evidence helped secure concessions and establish a parenting plan that gave the father a way to rebuild his relationship with his children.
The father still had work to do. The parenting plan couldn’t do it for him. But it gave him a path forward, and he was grateful for the opportunity.
That experience illustrates something Zachary believes about family law: the attorney cannot be the hero of the client’s story. The client has to do that work. A lawyer’s job is to understand the problem, recognize the possibilities, and help the client make something of them.
As Chief Operating Officer of Pacific Northwest Family Law, Zachary works to develop attorneys who understand that distinction.
From Books to Courtrooms
Zachary didn’t set out to become a lawyer. He wanted to teach literature.
He studied comparative literature at Brigham Young University and earned a Ph.D. at Stanford, researching Portuguese and Catalan writers who explored how people understand reality. He loved literature, philosophy, and languages. What he didn’t love was the growing distance he perceived between academic theory and practical life.
With three children to support, he decided to study law.
He had seen someone make a similar decision before. His father, Scott Ashby, farmed with Zachary’s grandfather near Quincy, Washington, before returning to college. Zachary remembers staying up late reading while his dad studied. Scott eventually entered Cornell Law School with four children.
Zachary discovered that law school and practicing law were quite different occupations.
Research, logic, writing, and argumentation were important, but they weren’t enough. An attorney could construct an impeccable argument and accomplish very little for the person paying the bill.
Clients needed lawyers who could understand people as well as legal rules, anticipate what might happen in court, and recognize the difference between vindication and a useful result.
That distinction matters particularly in divorce.
Zachary believes families are the foundation of human happiness. Divorce doesn’t necessarily end a family; it changes the relationships within it. Parents remain parents, and decisions made during a divorce may affect children and former spouses for decades.
He compares family-law practice to surgery. When a relationship has become unhealthy, separating people from the problems created by that relationship requires care and precision. A poorly handled divorce can leave damage that takes years to repair.
And sometimes the most useful advice an attorney can give is not what an angry client wants to hear.
Building the Kind of Firm He Wants to Practice In
Zachary joined Ashby Law in 2015. He began supervising legal assistants while maintaining his own caseload, took responsibility for marketing in 2018, and assumed broader operational responsibilities in 2019. In 2020, as Ashby Law became Pacific Northwest Family Law, he moved into full-time management.
He soon learned that developing attorneys was more complicated than hiring smart people and telling them to exercise independent judgment.
Early in his leadership career, he encouraged younger lawyers to develop their own strategies and learn through experience. He kept an open door, expecting them to come to him when they needed help.
Some didn’t. They felt they had been left alone with problems they weren’t yet equipped to solve.
Today, Zachary meets individually with attorneys to examine their cases and question their assumptions. What do we actually know? What is the client trying to accomplish? Why might the judge see things differently? What happens if our argument fails? Good questions aren’t simply a way to test whether someone knows the answer. They can expose assumptions the attorney didn’t realize were there.
He expects lawyers to think independently, take responsibility, and ask for help when they need it. That last part matters, especially when working with ambitious attorneys accustomed to being the person who always knew the answer in school.
Zachary also emphasizes storytelling. A client may complain that a spouse drinks too much. But what does that mean for the children, finances, or safety of the household? Merely repeating the accusation does little to help a judge understand what matters.
Attorneys have to find the meaning in the evidence and communicate it clearly.
That is the kind of work he wants Pacific Northwest Family Law’s attorneys to do.
Professional Background
Education
- J.D., J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
- Ph.D., Iberian and Latin American Cultures and Humanities, Stanford University
- B.A., Comparative Literature, Brigham Young University
Bar Admissions
- Washington, 2015
- Idaho, 2025
Selected Appellate Cases
- In re Marriage of Keele (2021). Represented the appellant and drafted briefing challenging a property division involving business and real-estate assets. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded.
- Cromer v. Thorn (2015). Served as counsel in appellate proceedings involving a child-support default judgment.
Professional Service and Continuing Legal Education
- Washington State Bar Association, Family Law Executive Committee
- Washington State Bar Association, Editorial Advisory Committee
- Continuing legal education presentations on estate planning, trusts, and related subjects
Professional Recognition
- Super Lawyers Rising Stars, 2023–2025
Languages and Interests
Zachary speaks Spanish and Portuguese and has studied Catalan, French, and Ancient Greek. He enjoys literature, running, fishing, and spending time with his wife and children.