Practice Areas
An expert in special education litigation, Brian Jason Ford
leads DBYD’s cutting-edge Education Law Division, which offers
comprehensive legal representation to public school districts
and independent schools in all areas of school law. Be it
special education, policy development, employment, property or
construction, DBYD’s Education Law Division will find pragmatic
solutions by untangling the web of interconnected, highly
complex issues of state and federal laws affecting schools.
DBYD’s Education Law Division provides outstanding, cost
effective legal representation to Pennsylvania school districts
and independent schools, preventing legal problems before they
arise.
Professional Highlights 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.
Education Brian received a Bachelor of Arts in business
administration from Franklin & Marshall College and a Juris
Doctorate from the Penn State University Dickinson School of
Law. 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.
Personal Brian is a proud Trustee of his alma mater, The Quaker
School at Horsham, a Pennsylvania private school serving bright
children who have learning disabilities. Brian lives in
Philadelphia with his beautiful wife, Emily.
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