Sammy Ford IV
Top rated Business Litigation attorney in Houston, Texas
Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing, PLLC
Practice areas: Business Litigation, Personal Injury, Securities Litigation
Licensed in Texas since: 2008
Education: The University of Texas School of Law
Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing, PLLC
1221 McKinney StSuite 2500
Houston, TX 77010 Phone: 713-655-1101 Email: Sammy Ford IV Visit website
Details
What Sammy’s Clients Say:
“Sammy’s level of sophistication is very strong. His commercial awareness and vision is very strong. Sammy played a critical role in a recent trial that resulted in a favorable outcome for us. In particular, I believe his cross examination of a critical witness and closing statement were essential to the jury finding in our favor.”
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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.
First Admitted: 2008, Texas
Professional Webpage: http://www.azalaw.com/our-attorneys/sammy-ford-iv/
- Houston Bar Association Law Week Committee; Houston Bar Association Houston Lawyer Magazine Editorial Board; Houston Bar Association Bench-Bar Pro Bono Committe; Houston Trial Lawyers Board Member; Houston Trial Lawyers Membership Committe; Council Member of the Computer and Technology Section of the State Bar of Texas; Houston Bar Association Communities in Schools Committee Co-Chair.
- Attorney profile video., www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuT4k-ESjak, 2011
- Board Certified - Personal Injury Trial Law Texas Board of Legal Specialization, 2013
- St. Thomas High School Board, 2013
- The University of Texas School of Law, Austin, TexasJ.D. – 2007 Thurgood Marshall Legal Society, Chair: Career Services Committee, 2005-2006 Review of Litigation (Volume 26), Development Editor, 2006 – 2007 Review of Litigation (Volume 25), Staff Member, 2005 – 2006Harvard CollegeA.B. (Magna cum laude) – 2004, 2004
Selections
- Super Lawyers: 2021 - 2025
- Rising Stars: 2013 - 2021
Top Lists
Up-and-Coming 100: Texas Rising Stars: 2017 - 2021Certificates and credentials
Personal Injury Trial Law