Claremore Daily Progress

Business

Related Photos

  • PROGRESS PHOTO/Krystal J. Carman

    images_sizedimage_153115700
June 2, 2009

Claremore attorney named to America’s Best in 2009

By Krystal J. Carman

June 2, 2009 — Nominated by his fellow attorneys, Jack Gordon Jr. has been added to the list of The Best Lawyers in America for 2009.

This isn’t the first time Gordon has been included in the list. He was first nominated and voted one of The Best Lawyers in America in 2003. The selection process for Best Lawyers, which is published in The Best Lawyers of America — an annual legal referral guide — is based entirely on peer review where top lawyers in the United States evaluate the work of other top lawyers in the same specialties and geographic areas. For Gordon, being nominated and voted on by colleagues is an honor.

“It’s great to know your peers think of you that way,” he said.

Gordon has been practicing law in and around Claremore for 37 years. He followed in his father’s footsteps in becoming an attorney, even attending the same college — the University of Arkansas. Passing the bar in 1969, Gordon said he joined the Army and served for three years before he sunk his teeth into law. Taking a case to trial is one of Gordon’s specialities. He taught trial practice at the University of Tulsa for 20 years. His very first trial was a murder trial which he remembers well.

“It was a murder case where the wife had murdered her husband,” he said. “The jury convicted her and gave her four-and-a-half years, but the judge suspended it.”

In addition to learning the basics of practicing law in college, Gordon attended a trial course in Reno where, he says, “That’s where I learned real good basics on how to try a case. You’ve got to be able to know how to try a lawsuit. You never know what’s going to come your way as a lawyer.”

A 1984 murder case where Gordon represented Gary Walker, a serial killer, changed the way he viewed being an attorney.

“There was a lot of publicity on that case and it changed my perspective on the practice,” he said. “It was my first death penalty case. He received the death penalty, but it was reversed on appeal and he received life without parole.”

Gordon has tried over 200 cases with approximately 20 of those being murder cases and 10 involving the death penalty. Currently, Gordon is the defense attorney in a death penalty case in Tulsa County. Not only does Gordon represent defendants in Eastern Oklahoma through his private practice, he also represents indigent defendants through the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System when there is a conflict with the OIDS attorneys.

In addition to being named one of The Best Lawyers in American, Gordon has been honored for his expertise in his profession elsewhere, including becoming a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in October 1999 where only the top one percent of lawyers are considered and only four criminal defense lawyers are currently included.

; and being presented the Lord Erskine Award by the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association in 2003.

Text Only
Business