Mr. Ashmore has been practicing law in South Carolina for over fifteen years. He was born in Greenville, South Carolina in 1959. He graduated from the College of Charleston in 1977. After graduating from the University of South Carolina Law School in 1986, he clerked for J. Bratton Davis, the Chief Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of South Carolina. He then clerked for three years for William Thurmond Bishop, the present Chief Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of South Carolina. From 1990 through 1996, Mr. Ashmore was an Assistant United States Attorney in South Carolina. He spent three years in the civil division and three years in the criminal division. His civil division areas of practice included bankruptcy, asset forfeiture, torts, and all areas of litigation. His civil trial experience included wrongful death, medical malpractice, and the forfeiture of drug proceeds.

While in the criminal division of the United States Attorney's Office, Mr. Ashmore prosecuted a number of cases including bank fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, weapons charges, bankruptcy fraud, securities fraud, bank robbery, money laundering, and drug offenses. At the time Mr. Ashmore left in 1996, he was the head of the Upstate Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force. In Mr. Ashmore's last year as an Assistant United States Attorney, he had the highest number of convictions in the State.