Robert W. Gordon

Robert W. Gordon, Professor of Law emeritus at Stanford Law School, has written extensively on contract law, legal philosophy, and on the history and current ethics and practices of the organized bar. His teaching and writing on American legal history, evidence, the legal profession, and law and globalization spans four decades. Gordon is known for his key works, Taming the Past: Law in History and History in Law (essays on legal history and the uses of history in legal argument); The Legacy of Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Storie Critiche del Diritto (Critical Legal Histories). He is editor of Law, Society, and History: Themes in the Legal Sociology and Legal History of Lawrence M. Friedman, which examines and celebrates the scholarship of Stanford’s Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law Lawrence Friedman.

Gordon received his BA from Harvard University and his JD from Harvard Law School. Before going to law school, he worked as a newspaper reporter and served in the U.S. Army. Following law school, he served in the Office of the Attorney General of Massachusetts (1971). Gordon has taught at Yale Law School, University of Buffalo Law School SUNY, and the University of Wisconsin, and been a visiting professor at Harvard University, Oxford University, the University of Toronto, and the European University Institute.