Frederick W. "Rick" Ford is a solo practitioner in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, practicing almost exclusively plaintiff's employment discrimination law and mediation. A 1976 graduate of Howard University Law School in Washington, DC, Rick has been an active trial attorney in both state and federal courts for over 30 years. From 1984 to 1987, he served as Senior Trial Attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel, Headquarters, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Washington, D.C., and was the original drafter of the EEOC's revision of the Equal Pay Act Interpretive Regulations, now codified at 29 C.F.R. 1620. He has testified before several state legislative committees and the United States Senate and served as legal consultant to the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee investigating the unauthorized transfer of presidential debate papers during the 1980 Presidential election campaign with his legal analysis published in the final Committee Report. He was the Legislative Vice-President of the Florida Chapter of National Employment Lawyers Association from 2004-2006. He has tried well over 200 cases in court in both jury and nonjury trials, obtaining notable results in jury verdict awards and settlements, including a two million dollar class action settlement against a Florida municipality in a race discrimination case. Since coming to Florida in 1989, the majority of his practice has been representing public employees against governmental employers, including police departments, state, county and municipal governments. He recently set a major precedent applying the Florida Sunshine Law to public employees' pretermination conferences. In 2006 and 2008, he was a candidate for Florida State Representative in District 83. He currently serves as President of Floridians for Health Care, a Palm Beach County-based statewide health care advocacy group supporting enactment of a national single payer universal health care system.

Areas of Practice

• Labor & Employment
• Civil

Litigation Percentage

• 70% of Practice Devoted to Litigation

Certification/Specialties

• Circuit Civil Mediator
• County Civil Mediator

Bar Admissions

• Florida, 1990
• Virginia, 1977
• Maryland, 1988
• Ohio, 1976
• District of Columbia, 1977
• U.S. District Court Eastern District of Virginia, 1977
• U.S. District Court Southern District of Florida, 1990
• U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit, 1979
• U.S. Court of Appeals 11th Circuit, 1991
• U.S. Supreme Court, 1997

Education

• Howard University School of Law, Washington, District of Columbia, 1976
  
  
• Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, OK, 1967
  
  

Honors and Awards

• Selected to appear in the 2005 edition of the National Register's "Who's Who in Executives and Professionals"
• Nominated for 1983 Outstanding Young Men of America
• Listed in Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, 1967
• Omicron Delta Kappa, Honor Society, OBU, 1966

Professional Associations and Memberships

• Florida Chapter of National Employment Lawyers Association, 2004 - 2006
  Legislative Vice-President
  
  
• Floridians for Health Care, Inc., 2007 - Present
  President
  
  

Past Employment Positions

• State And Federal Courts, Active Trial Attorney
• Office of Legal Counsel, Headquarters, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Washington, D.C., Senior Trial Attorney
• U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee, Legal Consultant

Birth Information

• 1945, Asheboro, North Carolina, United States of America