FORD FREELANCE LAW, LLC
Legal Research & Brief Writing Services By An Experienced Litigator
Education
Kathleen L. Ford, Owner/Founder
Ms. Ford graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1999 with a degree in Business and obtained her J.D. from Valparaiso University School of Law in Valparaiso, IN in 2002. While in law school, she was a member of the Moot Court Honor Society, where she served on the executive board and was selected as a finalist in the Luther M. Swygert Memorial Moot Court Competition. She also completed an extership at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Indiana.
Experience
After graduating from law school, Ms. Ford joined an insurance defense law firm in Chicago, Illinois where she worked as a litigation associate for several years. In this position, she gained invaluable courtroom and trial experience. She first-chaired numerous jury trials to verdict, appeared in court on a daily basis, deposed hundreds of individuals (including expert witnesses), and negotiated countless successful settlements on behalf of her clients.
After gaining extensive courtroom experience as a law firm associate, Ms. Ford then became an Assistant Attorney General for the Illinois Attorney General's Office in the Civil Division. As an Assistant Attorney General, she was responsible for defending the State of Illinois and high-ranking state officials and employees in (often high profile) civil litigation matters. She routinely appeared before federal judges and magistrates and drafted successful dispositive motions in federal court cases, obtaining dismissals in advance of trial.
Following her tenure as an Assistant Attorney General, Ms. Ford served as Of Counsel to a commercial litigation firm for 5 years, where she devoted her practice to legal research and brief writing. In this position, she researched and drafted numerous complicated briefs and pleadings for a variety of commercial cases, including highly complex class action matters, and was routinely tasked with analyzing and developing legal theories and case strategies.
Ms. Ford now assists lawyers and law firms with legal research, brief writing, and other projects on a contract basis through her own practice, Ford Freelance Law, LLC.
Admissions
Illinois Supreme Court (2002)
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (2005)
Wisconsin Supreme Court (2013)
Ms. Ford has over 20 years of civil litigation experience in a variety of practice settings and has extensive experience with all phases of litigation in both state and federal courts.