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Yaida O. Ford

Principal and
Managing Partner

YAIDA O. FORD is the Principal of Ford Law Pros, P.C. She has been named a Washington D.C. “Super Lawyer” from 2016 to the present. Admitted in nine different courts, Yaida is a trial lawyer who represents clients in civil rights cases, employment law matters, and real estate disputes in both federal and state courts.
In 2024, she settled a premises liability case against the District of Columbia Housing Authority for $1.5M.  She also settled a case against Justin Company, a Washington DC area drywall company who was accused of firing black laborers and hiring undocumented immigrants in their stead to reduce the company’s payroll costs.  The case settled for an undisclosed amount.
In 2023, she secured a jury verdict against Edison Electric Institute, a lobbying firm in Washington, D.C., in a race discrimination case, Franks vs. EEI. The total award was more than $380,00.00, plus attorney’s fees. In the same year she settled a case against the United States Park Police in Stamper vs. Lamond, a case where an officer threw a black woman in her trunk during a routine traffic stop on the GW Parkway. The case settled for $90,000.00.
In February 2022, she settled a race discrimination case against the United States Department of Agriculture for $650,000.00 in the matter of Williams vs. Vilsack.
In November 2022, Yaida also received a favorable decision against the US Department of Justice’s Drug Enforcement Administration in a gender discrimination suit before the EEOC in the case of Cleveland vs. Merrick Garland. Ms. Cleveland won back pay, compensatory damages, an offer of reinstatement to her position with a promotion to a GS-15, attorney’s fees and more.
Yaida is very active in the legal community outside of the courtroom.  She currently serves as the Vice President of the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association, whose members practice employment law in both the federal and private sectors. Yaida also serves on the Judicial Nomination Commission for the District of Columbia where she selects the chief judges for D.C. Superior Court and the D.C. Court of Appeals and recommends judicial candidates to the White House for nomination to vacancies within the Superior Court and Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
“My favorite part about trial work is connecting with my jury. The moment that I see the light bulbs turn on in their eyes, I know that I have just made my client’s story real to them.”

Admissions:
  • DC Court of Appeals
  • MD Court of Appeals
  • Washington Supreme Court
  • U.S. District Court and Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia
  • U.S. District Court and Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland
  • U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
Memberships:
  • American Bar Association – Litigation Section
  • Community Associations Institute- Member
  • D.C. Bar – Estates and Probate Section
  • D.C. Bar – Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee
  • D.C. Legislative Action Committee for Community Associations Institute
  • Prince George’s County Bar Association- Member
  • National Bar Association – Small firms and Solo Practitioners Section
  • Washington State Bar Association- Member
  • Washington Bar Association- Member
Background:

In her condo/HOA practice, Yaida has served as an advocate for both associations and unit owners in complex litigation. Yaida is undefeated in commercial litigation involving condominium associations. She currently assists investors and innovators who want to pursue condominium conversions within the District of Columbia to navigate their way through the conversion process and, where necessary, historic preservation review.

Yaida is most known for her work as a civil rights lawyer. She has won jury verdicts or large settlements for her clients in each police misconduct case that she has taken on. She is currently working on legislation to create a private cause of action for citizens who wish to sue DC’s local transit authority (WMATA) when one of its police officers violates their civil rights. Currently, WMATA has sovereign immunity against all suits involving their police officers and, therefore, cannot be sued. In 2019, Yaida started petitioning lawmakers to change this law and continues to seek support for its passage: http://chng.it/8QK2mRbT. She also created a music video #BOSSKING, which led to a $250,000.00 pre-suit settlement against a WMATA transit police officer who beat and arrested her client, Diamond Rust. The video can be seen here: https://youtu.be/Ie8vxuhUCQI. The law remains unchanged while Yaida continues to litigate against WMATA in ongoing police brutality cases.

Prior to beginning her career in private practice, Yaida was a law clerk for the Honorable Harold L. Cushenberry, Jr., Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia (retired). After concluding her clerkship, Yaida became a Staff Attorney at the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia. She then worked as Legislative Counsel to Jim Graham (D), who served as the Councilmember for D.C.’s Ward 1 for several years.

Yaida has served in several leadership positions in the DC bar. In 2021, she became the first Black Chair of the D.C. Bar Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee which recommends rules that govern attorney behavior in the District of Columbia. She currently serves on the Board of the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyer’s Association. Yaida formerly served as the chair of the Young Lawyer’s Division for the Washington Bar Association and co-founded the WBA’s mentorship program for law students who are preparing to take the bar exam. Yaida is the author of “The Tip Book: 18 Pearls of Wisdom for Judicial Law Clerks” and regularly speaks at law schools to show law students how obtaining a judicial clerkship after law school can leverage their legal careers.

Yaida graduated magna cum laude from Denison University with a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish. Yaida received her Juris Doctorate from the Howard University School of Law, in Washington D.C.

In her free time, Yaida leads book clubs, writes music, and occasionally records and performs.