Focus: Who do you take after; your mom or your dad? Moody: Both. People say I look exactly like my mother. Sometimes people will come up to me and they’ll say, “Oh, I can tell you are your father’s daughter.” And I’m thinking no way, because you haven’t met my mother. Focus: What about your personality? Moody: I think it’s a complete mixture. My mother is more outgoing; extroverted. She is much more of a feeler. [Laughing] When I’m visiting neighborhoods with my mother, campaigning on the weekend, usually in every conversation I have to say, “I’m sorry. My mom likes to talk a lot.” My mom is a great asset to the campaign. She loves to meet new people and she loves to talk about me. She’s a fantastic lady. She was Homecoming Queen at the University of Florida and she was Miss Panama City. She’s a really neat person. Although my father has become more outgoing in his later years, he’s usually more reserved and more of a thinker. He does not think out loud. If he says something, he’s thought about it for days. They’re both very good people. I think I’ve been afforded a lot of great opportunities because of them. Focus: Does your mother work? Moody: Yes. She is the team leader of the Senior Advocacy Unit at Bay Area Legal Services. They provide legal services for people who can’t afford legal help. Focus: So everyone in your family is involved in law somehow. Moody: Everyone except my sister. She’s the black sheep of the family. She will be a doctor next year. I also have a step-brother who’s not involved in law; Ryan. We call him the red-headed step child because he’s red-headed and he’s a step child. We call him that or the little Leprechaun. He loves that. Focus: Do you think growing up around so many lawyers had any influence on your decision to become a lawyer? Moody: I’m sure it’s had a tremendous impact. I think a lot of people go into the field their parents are in when they see how much their parents enjoy it and it becomes comfortable for them. I don’t know. I’ve wondered what I would be doing if I hadn’t grown up around lawyers and judges. But I think my personality fits this field of work. Focus: Your grandfather was a judge and now your father is a judge. How much did this impact your decision about being a judge? Moody: I knew that at some point in my career, I’d be involved in some type of public service. Community service is very important in my family. It’s almost expected. Not necessarily that our careers should be in public service, but that we should be involved in some way. Plant City has had a lot to do with who I am today. I truly believe that, and I think everyone has a responsibility to their community – to recognize the opportunities you’ve been given and give back in some way, whatever way that may be. Focus: When did you know you wanted to be involved in law? Moody: When I was young I thought I wanted to be a brain surgeon. I didn’t know what they did but it sounded really cool. By the time I made it to high school, I thought wanted to be a fashion merchandiser. I didn’t know what fashion merchandisers did either, but that sounded cool, too. By the time I was working on my undergraduate degree, I had an idea about what I wanted to do. My undergraduate degree is in accounting. I actually worked at Price Waterhouse for a short time after I got my undergraduate degree, before I went back to get my masters. Focus: Did your father or anyone in your family ever try to influence
Ashley Moody during her days as a cheerleader.
your decision to pursue a law degree? Moody: No, never. It didn’t matter what I wanted to be, my parents would have supported my decision. My parents just always told me that whatever I did, I needed to do the best job I could do. I believe that if you’re given the opportunity to do something—someone made the decision to hire you—then you should give it your full effort and make them proud of you. You don’t ever want the person who took a chance on you to regret their decision. I’ve always tried to work hard. My father made the decision to go into law, but I doubt my grandfather tried to influence that decision. I can’t imagine ending up in a career just because of my parents, and then hating that decision. Focus: Well, there can’t be many people who have had three generations of judges in their families. Moody: It really isn’t the emphasis, but there is something neat about the whole thing. The night my grandfather died, we all went to their house on Collins Street. At a time like that, everyone hasn’t hit the grieving stage yet. Everyone was milling around the house, not really knowing what to do. So I started going through a dresser drawer in the hallway and found my grandfather’s gavel. It was tarnished and dated 1957. As we were walking around the house I carried it in my hand, knocking it on things. I carried it around most of the night. After they took my grandfather’s body away, my grandmother told me I could hang on to the gavel. So I put it in my office at Holland and Knight and it’s been in every office I’ve had since. It’s such a neat thing to have something that he used everyday, and right here in Tampa. Focus: How did you become interested in running for judge at this time?
FOCUS PLANT CITY EDITION • August 15 • 2006 - September 15 • 2006 PG 47