Sammy Ford IV, Business Attorney in Houston, Texas

Sammy Ford IV has tried over 20 cases before judges, juries, and arbitrators in his career. He represents companies and individuals around the country in all manner of civil matters, including complex commercial litigation, business torts, securities class actions, and catastrophic personal injury cases. He is board certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Sammy’s favorite place is in the courtroom trying cases. In 2022, he successfully tried a case on behalf of the Port of Houston against a former tenant over the condition of the premises after the tenant moved out. A Houston jury award his client $22,317,000. In 2021, as first chair he successfully represented emergency room physicians in obtaining a $19.1 million Houston jury verdict against a large insurance company in the first case in the nation to litigate emergency room physicians’ out-of-network pay from private insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act. In 2017, he served as second chair in a trial for an energy client suing an insurance company that refused to pay for damage to an offshore well caused by Hurricane Rita. He played an instrumental role in the presentation of the evidence over the course of the six-week trial that ended in a $41.6 million jury verdict that included $27.3 million in punitive damages. The case was one of the top 100 2017 verdicts in the nation according to the National Law Journal.

He graduated with honors from the University of Texas School of Law in 2007. While there, he served as Development Editor of The Review of Litigation and as Chair of the Career Services Committee of the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society. He participated in the school’s first Supreme Court Clinic and was on a team that convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to review a client’s case during a term in which the Court agreed to hear only 78 of the 8,517 cases filed. Following law school, Mr. Ford clerked for the Honorable Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

He was elected to the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), an elite group of the country’s leading trial lawyers. He has been recognized by attorneys across the United States, making the list of the Best Lawyers in America 2020-2025 for commercial litigation and in 2022 for both plaintiff and defendant personal injury litigation. He was also named a 2017-2021 “Top 100 Texas Up & Coming” lawyer on the Texas Rising Stars list for his business litigation skills. Rising Stars, which has listed Mr. Ford since 2013, honors leading attorneys age 40 and younger and those who have been in practice no more than 10 years. He was cited for his business litigation acumen on their 2021 Super Lawyers list as well.

Sammy is a native Houstonian who attended St. Thomas High School where he served on the board on the board for six years. During his time on the board, St. Thomas launched and completed the largest capital campaign in the school’s 100 plus year history. He attended Harvard University and graduated with high honors, magna cum laude, in 2004. At Harvard, he served as Historian of the Harvard Political Union, the College’s debating society, and as Secretary of Harvard CHANCE, a group dedicated to mentoring and tutoring students from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.

He is active in the community as a member of the local and state bar associations. He is past-Chair of the State Bar’s Computer and Technology Section Council, a member of the Pattern Jury Charge Committee, Vice Chair of the Houston Bar Association’s Litigation Section, and a Co-Chair of the Houston Bar Association’s Membership Committee.

Classes/Seminars

E-Discovery Update, Harris County Civil Judges Conference, August 5, 2019Top 10 Mistakes at Trial, Houston Paralegal Association- Advanced Paralegal Conference, April 26, 2019Silver Tongues: A Mock Voir Dire, 2019 HBA Civil/Appellate Bench Bar Conference, April 11, 2019Technology and the Law: 30 Apps in 30 Minutes, 17th Annual Texas Minority Attorney Program, April 5, 2019Top 10 Mistakes at Trial, Houston Bar Association seminar, March 15, 2019Building a Resilient Law Office: Tips on Making Sure That Disasters and Acts of God Don’t Disrupt Your Practice, State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting, June 22, 201860 Apps in 60 Minutes, State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting, June 22, 2017Evidentiary Update: Experts, Attorney Fees, and Net Worth, panel at 2017 Houston Bar Association Civil/Appellate Bench Bar Conference, April 6, 2017New Discoveries in … Discovery, Corporate Counsel Institute, April 7, 2016New Federal Rules of e-Discovery, Advanced Evidence and Discovery, April 8, 2016Embrace the Power of Difference, Panelist, Bar Leaders Conference, July 25, 2015Cloudy, with a Chance of Ethics, State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting , June 19, 2015Technology in Your Law Practice: 30 Apps in 30 Minutes, Handling Your First (Or Next) Auto Collision Case, State Bar of Texas, December 10, 201430 Apps in 30 Minutes: Turning Your Mobile Device into an Advocate, President?s Annual Meeting and Advanced Personal Injury Seminar, Texas Trial Lawyers Association, December 4, 201430 Apps in 60 Minutes for Trial and Appellate Lawyers ? Turning Your iPhone (or Android) into an Advocate, Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists meeting, October 16, 2014The Ethics of Cloud Computing, Computer and Technology Section, State Bar of Texas, January 2014Technology Skills for New Lawyers – What Law Students Need to Know, Houston Area Law Library Association, South Texas of Law, November 13, 201345 Apps in 45 Minutes, Eastern District of Texas Bar Foundation?s 2013 Bar Conference, October 30, 2013The Ethics of Cloud Computing, Law Practice Management Section, Houston Bar Association, September 11, 2013Mobile Applications, State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting, June 21, 2013Ethics of Cloud Computing, Houston Bar Association CLE, April 26, 2013Ethics of Cloud Computing, Houston Metropolitan Paralegal Association, March 12, 2013Cloud Computing and the Law, State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting, June 14, 2012Course Director, Personal Injury CLE, April 26, 2012

Past Employment Positions

Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Sorrels, Agosto & Friend, 2010-2016Susman Godfrey, LLP, Houston, Texas, Associate, 2008 – 2010Honorable Jerry E. Smith, Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Law Clerk, 2007 – 2008A