Brian Jason Ford, of Dischell, Bartle, Yanoff & Dooley, P.C., received a Juris Doctorate from the Penn State University Dickinson School of Law and a Bachelors of Arts in business administration from Franklin & Marshall College. Brian first became involved in education law at PSU Dickinson. While working as a research assistant, Brian completed an analysis of special education law implementation in each federal circuit. That analysis was cited in “Stepping Back Through the Looking Glass: Real Conversations with Real Disputants About Institutionalized Mediation and Its Value,” Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, 2004. That article, authored by PSU Dickinson School of Law Professor Nancy Welsh and published in cooperation with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, focused on real disputants’ perceptions of procedural justice as they went through Pennsylvania’s special education mediation procedure.
Brian left law school with PSU Dickinson’s highly regarded Certificate in Advocacy and Alternative Dispute Resolution and a CALI Excellence for the Future Award for excellent achievement in the study of Mediation. These achievements represent an academic focus in skills-based courses directly applicable to the ADR-heavy practice of education law.
Immediately after law school, Brian represented students with disabilities and their families while working as an associate at a prominent special education law firm in the Philadelphia suburbs. There, Brian became adept at analyzing special education claims from the plaintiffs’ perspective, a skill that Brian continues to use in his defense of school districts and independent schools. Remarkably few attorneys have litigated special education disputes from both sides of the aisle. This unique perspective allows Brian to identify litigation strategies at the earliest stages of education law disputes and economically value potential liabilities.
Brian took this understanding of education law with him to a leading law firm in the Lehigh Valley, where he became an expert special education litigator. During his time in central-eastern Pennsylvania, Brian handled the majority of special education due process hearings, administrative appeals and federal special education cases for many school districts, vocational/technical schools and intermediate units in and around Lehigh, Northampton, Monroe and Wayne counties. This experience not only solidified Brian’s skills as a litigator and defense strategist, but gave Brian a basis to accurately estimate the time and expense of special education litigation. Additionally, Brian worked with Pennsylvania’s leading school insurance providers to offer comprehensive defenses to school districts at all phases of the litigation process.
Brian left Pennsylvania to accept a position at a boutique education law firm in New Jersey, with a special education law practice that is national in scope. There, Brian represented school districts throughout New Jersey in general school law matters including land use and student discipline, and followed trends and developments in special education law at the national level. Knowing the extent to which Pennsylvania courts accept or rejects national jurisprudence is critical to the identification of post-due process appeals options.
Brian lives in Philadelphia with his beautiful wife, Emily.
