Harold Ford studied law at the University of Melbourne as an articled clerk, interrupting his studies to serve in the Australian Navy during World War II. After completing the LLB course, he became the fifth member of the Law School's full-time academic staff in 1949, appointed as a senior lecturer. He undertook postgraduate study at the Harvard Law School.
In 1960 he became Robert Garran Professor of Law in the Australian National University, but he returned to the University of Melbourne in 1962 as Professor of Commercial Law. He served as dean in Zelman Cowen's absence in 1964, and again from 1967 to 1973. He retired from the University of Melbourne in 1984.
Ford developed widely recognised expertise in trusts and corporations law, publishing authoritative texts in both areas. In 1963–4, he served on the Manning Committee on Bills of Exchange, and in 1974–5 was part of a small team that prepared the National Companies Bill. In 1976–8, he chaired a joint working party on the establishment of a central clearing house system for the stock exchange. He also chaired the Companies and Securities Law Review Committee. In 1994 Harold Ford was made a member of the Order of Australia for services to law.
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