Richard Thompson Ford

Richard Thompson Ford has established himself as a leading voice in civil rights law and social criticism as the George E. Osborne Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. After earning his BA from Stanford in 1988 and JD from Harvard Law School in 1991, he joined Stanford's faculty in 1994 following roles as a Reginald F. Lewis Fellow at Harvard, litigation associate at Morrison & Foerster, and housing policy consultant. His influential scholarship spans critical race theory, local government law, and discrimination, with notable works including "Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History," "Rights Gone Wrong," and "The Race Card," which were widely acclaimed and selected as New York Times Notable Books. As a public intellectual, he contributes regularly to major publications like the New York Times, Washington Post, and Slate, while serving as a founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance and board member of the Author's Guild Foundation. His expertise has earned him visiting professorships at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia Law Schools, and his practical experience includes serving as a Commissioner of the San Francisco Housing Authority. Currently, he teaches courses on Constitutional Law, Employment Discrimination, and Modern American Legal Thought while continuing to bridge academic scholarship with public discourse on race, civil rights, and social justice.