Ernst Ashurov was born in Baku, Azerbaijan. At the age of thirteen, he moved to Moscow, Russia where after graduating from high school, he attended the Moscow State University, Faculty of Law.

Ernst came to Canada at the end of 1992 and initially settled in Montreal where he worked as a legal assistant for the law firm of Hussey, Fregeau.
In 1995, Ernst was admitted to the Faculty of Law of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

During his law school studies, Ernst worked as a research assistant for Professor Sheila M. Noonan conducting legal research on the legislative treatment of natural medicines in foreign jurisdictions. He also provided case law research assistance for Professor Allan S. Manson’s textbook on sentencing.

In 1997, Ernst received Gowling, Strathy & Henderson Award for outstanding achievement in the Secured Transactions & Insolvency course, and in 1998, he was granted David Sabbath Prize in Administrative Law for outstanding achievement in the Administrative Law course.

After graduating from Queen’s Law School in 1998, Ernst articled for the prominent Toronto criminal law firm of Adler Bytensky.

In February 2000, Ernst was admitted to Ontario and New York State Bar. Following his admission to the Bar, Ernst opened his own law firm and has been practicing in a wide range of areas with the main focus on criminal law.

In 2000, Ernst conducted extensive legislation and case law survey on the topic of money laundering in the securities industry for the Nathanson Centre of Organized Crime and Corruption at York University.

Ernst appeared before all trial and appellate levels of Court in Ontario in numerous criminal and civil cases and before Superior and Ontario Courts of Justice in many family cases. He also appeared before the Ontario Labour Relations Board, Immigration and Refugee Board, and Federal Court of Canada.

Ernst developed a special interest and expertise in Charter advocacy and has conducted numerous successful defenses based on violations of the accused’s constitutional rights excluding crucial evidence and staying proceedings against his clients.