NORTH PALM BEACH, FL, July 07, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Frederick W. "Rick" Ford has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Mr. Ford is an attorney celebrating over four decades of practice in employment discrimination and Title VII cases, personal injury and governmental defense. His interest in the law began during his Vietnam War-era service in the United States Air Force. A vocal antiwar advocate, he found himself the victim of retaliatory job and station transfers after being quoted by a local newspaper covering an anti-war rally. Following his honorable discharge at the rank of a captain in 1972, Mr. Ford was forced to litigate in order to draw attention to the Air Force's violation of his First Amendment rights, sparking a lifelong passion for defending victims of employment discrimination.
Prior to his military service, Mr. Ford had completed a Bachelor of Arts in history and government at Oklahoma Baptist University in 1967. Upon his discharge from the military, he enrolled at the Howard University School of Law, and completed a Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1976, graduating second in his class. In 1975, he served as a staff attorney with the White House Presidential Clemency Board. To support his passion for protecting those at risk of discrimination, Mr. Ford entered private practice with Lowe, Mark, Moffite, Ford & Barton, in Alexandria, Virginia, where he would specialize in representing individuals charged with victimless crimes until 1983. During this period, he also served as a legal consultant to a House of representatives subcommittee on the unauthorized transfer of 1980 Presidential debate papers. From 1983 until 1987, Mr. Ford earned distinction as a senior attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission at its headquarters in Washington, DC, where authored the initial draft of the revision of the Equal Pay Act Interpretive Regulations.
For the next two years, Mr. Ford worked in private practice at the law offices of John B. Lowe practicing personal injury litigation. In 1989, he relocated to West palm Beach, Florida, where he established a solo practice until his retirement in 2017. His practice remained focused on defending public employees against discrimination from local and state government employers, and he tried more than 300 cases throughout his career, including a precedent-setting case on pre-termination conferences in the state of Florida and obtaining a federal court decree forcing a local police department to integrate. Mr. Ford is also a certified Florida civil court mediator, and has been admitted to practice law by the state bars of Florida, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio and the District of Columbia.
Mr. Ford's commitment to social justice extends to his record of community involvement. A lifelong Democrat, he ran for the Florida State House of Representatives in 2006 and 2008, and has worked on local and national campaigns for such candidates as George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, John Kerry, Bernie Sanders and Hilary Clinton. Presently, he serves as a member of the Palm Beach County Democratic Executive Committee and the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida. He is the former president of Floridians for Health Care and a passionate advocate for single-payer Medicare for All healthcare. Likewise, Mr. Ford has been active in cannabis policy reform initiatives since the early 1980s, when he served as the Virginia State Coordinator for the National Task Force on Cannabis Regulation.
Mr. Ford's philosophy of practice is based on the words of Ephesians 6:12: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Though retired, he continues to fight for equality, and maintains involvement with numerous community and charitable organizations, including the Florida chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the ACLU. In the coming years, Mr. Ford hopes to be able to travel extensively, and aspires to visit and tour sites of historic interest in Egypt, China and South America.
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Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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