Education

B.A., Vanderbilt University
J.D., University of Tennessee College of Law

About

Beth Ford served as the Community Defender for the Eastern District of Tennessee for 24 years.  She began working at Federal Defender Services when the office was created in 1992. Before 1992, she was the Area Legal Counsel for the Tennessee Department of Human Services (now Children’s Services) for 13 years. She was previously in private practice as Newport, Tennessee’s first woman lawyer. She currently teaches and consults with defender organizations about quality of representation.

Ford has taught trial practice for 14 years as well as Adjudicatory Criminal Procedure at the College of Law, Criminal Procedure in the college’s MLS program, and criminal procedure at Pellissippi in the paralegal program.

She is past chair of the College of Law Alumni Council and currently a member of the Dean’s Circle and the Leadership Institute’s board of directors.

She has been recognized with the UT Alumni Service Award and with the Bernstein-Ritchie Award for service to the Legal Clinic. In 2023, she received the Knoxville Bar Association’s Governor’s Award for service to the profession.  In the community, she is active with the YWCA, the Knoxville Bar Association and Messiah Lutheran Church.