Ashby T. Ray

Ashby T. Ray was appointed to the post of general counsel at NCDPS effective April 1, 2025. Ray has served since January as acting general counsel for the department.

Prior to his appointment as acting general counsel, Ray worked as the chief deputy general counsel for NCDPS since Dec. 2020. Before joining DPS, he was the senior police attorney for the City of Raleigh for more than a decade. Ray also served as an assistant attorney general with the NC Department of Justice. In that capacity, he represented the NC Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission, the Company Police Program, the NC State Bureau of Investigation, the Alcohol Law Enforcement Division, the North Carolina National Guard and the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.
 
Before attending law school, Ray was a sworn law enforcement officer for the City of Raleigh Police Department, where he worked in both Patrol and Special Operations.

Ray is a native of Wake County, North Carolina.  He graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in political science from Emory and Henry College and received his Juris Doctor from the Campbell University Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law, where he was inducted into the Order of the Barristers.