Ann Ford Named Women in Law Honoree
Ann Ford Named Women in Law Honoree
Chicago, IL
July 22, 2022
Ann Ford, Partner at Hall Prangle and Schoonveld, LLC (HPS), and Managing Director of HPS Advise, has been named one of Chicago Daily Law Bulletin & Chicago Lawyer’s 2021 Salute! Women in Law Award honorees. According to CDLB’s website, this award is based on the nominee’s “work to mentor and promote other women in the profession, their success in the legal community and being a shining example of leadership.”
Ann Ford’s healthcare career is defined by her exceptional leadership across many facets of the industry. She has served as in-house counsel to two large, metropolitan health systems, as a C-suite executive at a leading medical device manufacturer, and even worked as a practitioner, beginning her career as a nurse who provided care to high-risk obstetrics patients.
As a partner at Hall Prangle and Schoonveld (HPS) and managing director of HPS Advise, the firm’s consulting arm, she puts that diversity of experience to work on behalf of her clients.
Ann came to HPS in 2019 after nearly nine years as Deputy General Counsel, Global Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer and Global Privacy Officer at Medline Industries. There, she developed the global ethics, compliance, conflict of interest, privacy, anti-corruption, and medical affairs programs. Before that, Ann was Vice President and General Counsel for two Chicago-area hospitals in succession, Rush North Shore Medical Center and Rush Copley Medical Center.
Another hallmark of Ann’s career is her commitment to mentorship and philanthropy. An active and passionate volunteer, Ann serves on the board of trustees and is the founding Co-Chair of the Women’s Leadership Council at Roosevelt University in Chicago. She also is a board member of NorthShore University Health System, Northwest Community Healthcare, Giordano Dance Chicago, Medical Affairs Professional Society, and the Partnership for a Connected Illinois. As part of her philanthropic service, Ann has also chaired numerous committees and working groups.
Ann also serves as a formal and informal mentor to students, attorneys, and professionals. While at Medline and as a hospital executive, Ann championed the members of her teams—many of whom were women—as they became specialists and leaders in their fields. She now mentors nursing students at her alma mater, Marquette University in Milwaukee, and also serves as a mentor to students at Roosevelt University. Likewise, she continues to informally mentor attorneys and non-attorneys both at HPS and HPS Advise.
Ann studied law at DePaul University, earning her J.D. in 1992. She then joined Locke Lord (then called Lord Bissell & Brook) as a medical malpractice attorney. She practiced there for nearly eight years, working alongside several of the attorneys she would later rejoin at HPS.
In her legal work at HPS, Ann guides her clients through the complexity of healthcare regulations including issues around physician contracts and credentialing, anti-kickback statutes, employment, and the growing challenges presented by the collection and electronic retention of patient health information.
At HPS Advise, Ann leads a team of professionals that consults with healthcare organizations, hospital systems, life science companies and manufacturers of durable medical equipment and home medical equipment. The HPS Advise team has expertise in forensic discovery of digital health records, compliance, conflict of interest and privacy programs, and healthcare risk management, particularly in the field of obstetrics.