Profile

Joseph M. Ford

Senior Partner

Joe Ford has spent most of his professional career providing corporate and regulatory representation for banking companies and investment banks. He has handled numerous M&A transactions and capital funding transactions involving financial institutions. His experience also encompasses virtually every other aspect of bank ownership and operations, including dealing with major regulatory problems, Sub S conversions, going private transactions, buying and selling branches, shareholder disputes, sale leasebacks, joint ventures, sales of distressed assets and other restructuring transactions involving bank ownership and expansion

Based on surveys of his peers, Texas Lawyer newspaper named Mr. Ford the top “Go-To” banking lawyer in Texas in 2002 and one among five “Top Notch” banking lawyers statewide in 2007. Mr. Ford is profiled as one of the leading Banking & Finance lawyers in Texas in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business (2010) and is also named among the Best Lawyers in America from 2009 to 2015 in the specialty of banking law.

Throughout his career, Mr. Ford has lectured and spoken regularly at seminars, conferences and banking schools sponsored by national and regional banking associations, bar associations, educational institutions and other groups. He has also authored over 100 articles for lawyers and bankers that have been published by, among others, the American Banker, the Independent Banker, The Banker’s Record, Community Banker, Texas Tech Law Review and various publications of the American Bankers Association, the Independent and Community Bankers Association, the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Bankers Association and other state and regional organizations.

Education

• J.D., Harvard Law School, 1970
• B.A., University of Mississippi, 1967

Membership

• State Bar of Texas
• Austin Bar Association
• Texas Association of Bank Counsel
• Admitted to practice: Texas 1970

Publications

• December 2015 Article: New Rules Benefit Small Bank Holding Companies – published by BankDirector.com