Veteran journalist Ashleigh Banfield is co-anchor of the trial coverage program Banfield and Ford: Courtside (weekdays from 1-3 p.m. ET) on IN SESSION. Banfield joined the premier legal news network in July 2005 where she first appeared as a guest host for various daytime programs, including Open Court and Catherine Crier Live. In addition to the daytime schedule, Banfield hosts Hollywood Heat (Thursdays, 11:30 p.m. ET), a weekly crime and justice entertainment news series and Disorder in the Court, a prime-time special counting down outrageous courtroom moments. The third installment of this popular series of specials, in which Banfield serves as co-producer and developed the original concept, premieres in February 2008.

Banfield previously served as both a correspondent and anchor for NBC News and its sister cable network, MSNBC, covering some of the world’s biggest events. She reported live from the World Trade Center in New York City following the terrorist attacks on 9/11, for which she received EMMY recognition, and later traveled to countries including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel and Lebanon to cover the War on Terror. While there, she anchored several prime time series, including "A Region In Conflict" and "Ashleigh Banfield: On Location."

Before that, Banfield was a news anchor for KDFW-TV, the FOX affiliate in Dallas, where she received her first EMMY Award and a Texas Associated Press Award. She also freelanced as an associate producer in Russia for ABC’s “World News Tonight,” covering the Bush/Gorbachev Summit in 1991 and the Clinton/Yeltsin summit in 1992. She began her career in television journalism in 1988 as a photographer, researcher, and reporter in Ontario, Canada.

Banfield received a bachelor's degree in political studies and French from Queen's University in Ontario, Canada in 1988, and later continued her language education in an Advanced French Studies program at the University of British Columbia.

She currently lives in Connecticut with her husband and two young sons.

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