John Ford studied law at the University of Cape Town before moving to Namibia where he practiced in the oldest and largest law firm, Lorentz and Bone, from 1988 to 1995. Initially he focused on the representation of survivors of human rights abuses, before maintaining a practice that focused on employment and family law after Namibian Independence in 1991.

When it came to his divorce practice, it didn’t take him long to figure out that the old way of aggressive, adversarial negotiation only served his law firm’s financial interests, and typically was debilitating and very costly for his clients. So he started inviting the ‘other’ spouse to meet with him, and together the husband, wife and John would figure out a solution that was far better than adversarial negotiation, and certainly cheaper!

After moving to the California in 1996, John set about getting trained as a mediator, and while much of his focus has been on workplace dispute resolution, he has always kept his interest and skills in supporting separating couples alive.

In 1999 he was commissioned by the Legal Assistance Center in Namibia to write a research paper on the viability of divorce mediation for Namibia. Extracts have been since published by the Canadian Family Law Journal. John has written extensively on the subject of conflict resolution and mediation.

Currently he mediates divorces with Liaise Divorce Solutions in downtown San Francisco. He teaches negotiation at UC Hasting School of Law and mediation to PSYD and MFT therapy students at JFK University. Mr. Ford is a past president of the Association For Dispute Resolution of Northern California.