Profile

Rebecca L. Ford concentrates her practice on corporate transactions and contracts, corporate governance and corporate compliance programs. She has extensive experience managing litigation and provides critical support on public/private transactions managing government and stakeholder relationships.

As a member of the Scharf Banks Marmor Corporate and Compliance Department, Rebecca has counseled clients on ethics and compliance matters, such as analysis of anticorruption practices, and federal guidelines and best practices.

Rebecca has monitored compliance programs for the Federal Trade Commission and the Competition Bureau of Canada.She has assisted clients with review of compliance programs dealing with government corruption to training program's designed to enlist employees' support of corporate change and performed a comprehensive reviews of corporate compliance and ethics programs.

She has also worked on pay equity topics, and has led DEI efforts as Trustee of non-profit institutions that have prioritized DEI.

Rebecca’s experience with corporate transactions and contracts has enabled her to respond expeditiously to client needs by focusing on business and legal requirements, while avoiding excessive delays that can derail projects or make them costlier. She has assisted on contracts covering a wide range of subjects and industries, including private label manufacturing, product distribution and commercial leases.

Prior to joining the firm, Rebecca was Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary to Draper and Kramer, Inc., a major Chicago real estate and financial services company. While at Draper and Kramer, Rebecca was responsible for itslegal matters, board relations and corporate governance. She was liaison to the City of Chicago, the MacArthur Foundation and other stakeholders for major, transformative mixed-income development.

Rebecca served as the Executive Vice President for litigation and intellectual property at the MGM movie studio where she oversaw all domestic and international litigation, as well as intellectual property matters, involving MGM, United Artists and other MGM subsidiaries. She also served as Associate General Counsel at City Colleges of Chicago, where she supervised legal services for a seven-college community college district, managed litigation, acquired and disposed of real estate, negotiated contracts, and counseled senior management on legal, regulatory compliance, and Institutional Review Board issues. Rebecca's previous law firm experiences include bond-finance and real estate projects, as well as commercial, financial and appellate litigation.

Rebecca has served as Trustee to a number of civic and cultural institutions, including the Goodman Theatre, the Field Museum, the Chicago Humanities Festival, and the Art Institute of Chicago. She has published articles in The Milken Institute Review, The American Lawyer, The Chicago Reader, The New York Law Journal, The Chicago Tribune and the Illinois Institute for Continuing Education. Rebecca is a contributing columnist and movie critic for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, WCPT820 and Variety.com.

Rebecca received her B.A. from Harvard College, her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, and her L.L.M. in Real Estate from the University of Illinois Chicago Law School. She is a member of the bar of Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, California, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Supreme Court.