Arthur J. Morris Law Library 580 Massie Road University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia 22903 archives@law.virginia.edu URL: http://archives.law.virginia.edu/
Repository
Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections
Identification
MSS.04.1
Title
The Papers of Judge Thomas C. Gordon, Jr 1965-1991
Papers of Judge Thomas C. Gordon, Jr., MSS 04-1, Box Number, Special Collections, University of Virginia Law Library.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Justice Thomas C. Gordon Papers were donated to the Special Collections Department of the Law Library in March 2004 by
the law firm of McGuire Woods.
Thomas Christian Gordon, Jr. was born in Richmond, Virginia, on 14 July 1915. His parents were Thomas Christian Gordon and
Ruth Nelson (Robins). He attended the University of Virginia, receiving his B.A. in 1936 and his LL. B. from the Law School
in 1938. Gordon was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1937. From 1938-1940, he was an associate for the Richmond law firm of
Parrish, Butcher & Parrish; from 1940-1965 and 1972-1983 he was an associate and partner of the law firm of McGuire, Woods
and Battle, where his specialty was business law, and he was president of the Virginia Bar Association from 1963-1964. In
1965, he was nominated as an associate justice of what is now the Supreme Court of Virginia.
Justice Gordon was a lecturer at the University of Virginia Law School (1970-1972) and at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law
(1979-1981). As a student at Virginia Law School, he was part of the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review . He was trustee and president of the Crippled Childrens Hospital of Richmond. He was part of the Fellow American Bar Foundation
and a member of the American Bar Association. He retired from the law in 1981 and pursued his love to paint, took lessons
at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and became an accomplished artist. He died May 17, 2003.
This collection contains notebooks, memoranda and correspondence with between Judge Gordon and the University of Virginia
School of Law, the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, the Virginia Law Review and the law firm of McGuire Woods. The use of language is a recurrent topic in this collection. There are extensive articles
and newspaper clippings about the use of plain English and legal writing, as well as a collection of Gordon's speeches and
notes.