Emily Ambrose, Norton Rose Fulbright

Thinking about her professional path, Emily Ambrose considers herself fortunate to have worked with and learned from several Minnesota legal professionals who could be considered “legendary” for their career achievements.

After graduating from William Mitchell College of Law, Ambrose began her legal career as a law clerk, serving two terms with two “legendary” Minnesota Court of Appeals judges:  Judge Kevin G. Ross in the 2010-2011 term, and Judge Jill Flaskamp Halbrooks in the 2011-2012 term.

The clerkships afforded Ambrose opportunities to work on a wide range of criminal and civil matters, she recalled. “Every week we had a significant amount of work to do on each matter, so it really trained me well for the fast-paced work of litigation and complex litigation. It was a foundational experience.”

Then she spent a decade in practice at the  boutique Minneapolis trial firm of Blackwell Burke P.A., under another notable legal figure: Jerry W. Blackwell, who would eventually be appointed a U.S. district court judge.

While at Blackwell Burke, she had many opportunities to advise major, multinational clients on complex litigation in all aspects of civil practice, such as defending and taking witness and expert depositions, arguing motions and conducting discovery, including coordinating large-scale electronically stored information (ESI) discovery and trial.

One interesting case from early in her career involved successfully defending multinational client Conagra against false advertising claims related to its kosher beef hot dogs; the case was mentioned on the Jon Stewart show. She also successfully litigated other false-advertising cases for other clients. Ambrose has also served as national counsel defending Conagra in product liability cases.

In 2022, Ambrose joined Norton Rose Fulbright, where she has handled complex matters for clients, primarily in the food, beverage and consumer product market space.

One favorite aspect of her work is as a member of the firm’s artificial intelligence group, “which takes cross-functional looks at the AI issue from several different lenses — issues that might be facing clients. I enjoy learning about how AI fits in transactions, contracts, corporate governance and IP. … It runs the gamut.”