Randall "Randy" Lord ’77

Randy Lord serves as a member of the University of Maryland Foundation Board of Trustees.  He earned his degree in Theatre from UMD in 1977.  He is a classically trained pianist, singer and actor who became a lawyer when he was 32 years old. He spent nearly a decade working in New York as an actor, singer, choreographer, director and musical director, allowing him to perform in a multitude of venues in the United States and abroad. His work included concerts, plays and musicals, and he was hired to appear in dozens of feature films, television programs and commercials, with stars that included Bob Fosse, Tom Hanks, Ron Howard, Paul Newman, Jane Fonda, Sylvester Stallone, Donald O’Connor and numerous others. Randy is a member of Actor’s Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television & Radio Artists.

Randy’s communication skills, ability to think on his feet and understanding of human nature—all learned at the University of Maryland—paved the way for his success as a lawyer.  Randy pivoted into law shortly after scoring in the top 1% of the nation on the Law School Admission Test, earning him admission to the University of Florida College of Law, where he graduated 1st in the class of 1988.  Randy worked as a litigator at Trenam Law in Tampa for several years before joining the national law firm Foley & Lardner.  During his time as a litigator, Florida Governor Lawton Chiles appointed him to be Entertainment Commissioner for the state.  Because of his knowledge of the entertainment industry and his legal skills, Randy was hired to join the legal team at Walt Disney World in Orlando.

Randy retired as a partner from the country’s second-largest employment law firm, Jackson Lewis, in 2008. During his retirement, Randy has enjoyed providing pro bono legal services to Central Florida Community Arts and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, assisting in the negotiations for the Philharmonic’s current collective bargaining agreement.  

Randy and his husband, Steve Fessler (USF ’77), were thrilled to be on the team that brought the Pulitzer-prize-winning and 2022 Tony-award-winning best musical “A Strange Loop” to Broadway. The show had a successful run in London during the summer of 2023 and is scheduled to open in San Francisco and Los Angeles in 2024.