Richards H. Ford

Richards H. Ford is one of Wicker Smith’s four Managing Partners. He joined the firm in Miami in 1983, and opened the firm’s Orlando office five years later. Today, Orlando is the second-largest office in the firm, and the lawyers developed there under Dick’s tutelage have gone on to open new offices in Tampa, Jacksonville, Melbourne, Pensacola and Atlanta.

For over 40 years, Dick has been the trusted trial counsel to some of the firm’s biggest clients. He exclusively handles complex litigation matters with the potential for high damages and public exposure across an array of practice areas. He has represented doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, major automobile insurers, trucking companies, national retailers, lawyers and professional service providers, and other corporate clients in a variety of matters, including catastrophic injury and birth injury claims, wrongful death, general liability and bet the company litigation.

He serves as national counsel for several clients, and is frequently called to assist or take over a case that has had counsel assigned previously. He has tried well over 125 civil jury trials throughout Florida, and is admitted to practice pro hac vice in nine other states. Many of the cases he has worked on throughout his career have had significant public exposure, including the “super fog” multi-vehicle pile-up case in Florida in 2022, and the hazing death of a member of the FAMU marching band in 2012. In 2019, he was associated as national counsel to represent a hospital in rural Georgia in a medical malpractice case valued in the tens of millions of dollars, involving an alleged failure to diagnose sepsis that resulted in quadruple amputations in a 57-year old Army veteran.

Known for his calm and poise under pressure and his exceptional track record at trial, Dick has solidified his reputation as a masterful advocate, consistently delivering favorable outcomes across multiple industries. He has cultivated lasting relationships with hundreds of loyal clients, who entrust him with their most challenging legal matters time and again due to his dedication to excellence and deep-seated commitment to client service.

Dick is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Lawyer by The Florida Board of Legal Specialization. He is also certified with The National Board of Trial Advocacy as a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate and by the National Board of Civil Pretrial Practice Advocacy as a Board Certified Civil Pretrial Practice Advocate. He is a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, one of only five hundred Fellows in the United States; he is also a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation.

He holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, has been named to Florida Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America 12 times since 2010, and has twice been named as a Lawyer of the Year in the area of professional malpractice.

Dick is a devoted husband, father, and grandfather whose community involvement includes serving as a member of the Vestry of All Saints Episcopal Church, and as a member of the Interlachen Country Club Board of Directors.