Randy D. Gordon

Partner

  • Randy D. Gordon
  • Phone: +1 214 257 7212

    Import to Address Book

  • Duane Morris LLP
    100 Crescent Court, Suite 1200
    Dallas, TX 75201
    USA
  • Duane Morris LLP
    777 Main Street, Suite 2790
    Fort Worth, TX 76102
    USA

Randy D. Gordon is the managing partner of the firm's Dallas and Fort Worth offices. He has more than 30 years of complex litigation experience working with public and private companies in more than two dozen industries. Mr. Gordon focuses his practice on helping a range of entities with antitrust, RICO, class action, university-related, securities and intellectual-property matters. He is currently representing a major research university in international products liability litigation, a leading Texas homebuilder in RICO litigation, and a prominent Texas law firm in RICO litigation. He advises businesses on distribution plans and provides legal and economic analysis of proposed transactions, including mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Gordon formerly served as general counsel to a global trade association serving the semiconductor industry. He is executive professor of law at Texas A&M University, where he also holds joint appointments in history and the School of Performance, Visualization, & Fine Arts. Mr. Gordon is a frequent lecturer and has many published works on topics such as antitrust, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and class action matters in multiple media publications. He has written numerous law review articles. Mr. Gordon’s articles concerning RICO issues are regularly cited as persuasive authority by courts, commentators and practitioners, including in pattern jury instructions, leading law reviews (e.g., Columbia, Harvard, NYU, and Yale), and briefs in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court (e.g., Anza, Bank of China, and Bridge).

Mr. Gordon is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, (Ph.D., legal theory, 2009); Columbia Law School (LL.M., 1992); Washburn University School of Law (J.D., cum laude, 1991), where he was editor of the Washburn Law Journal; the University of Kansas, (Ph.D., English, 1990); where he was a recipient of the Dorothy Haglund Prize for an Outstanding Dissertation; the University of Kansas, (M.A., 1986); and the University of Kansas, (B.A., 1984).

Areas of Practice

  • Antitrust and Competition Law

  • Commercial Litigation

  • Consumer Class Action Defense Litigation

  • Products Liability and Mass Torts

Admissions

  • Texas
  • Oklahoma
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
  • U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
  • Supreme Court of the United States

Education

  • University of Edinburgh, Ph.D., Legal Theory, 2009
  • Columbia Law School, LL.M., International and Comparative Law, 1992
  • Washburn University School of Law, J.D., cum laude, 1991
    - - Editor and Member, Washburn Law Journal
  • University of Kansas, Ph.D., 1990
  • University of Kansas, M.A., 1986
  • University of Kansas, B.A., 1984

Experience

  • Duane Morris LLP
    - Partner, 2021-present
  • Texas A&M University School of Law
    - Executive Professor, present
  • Barnes & Thornburg LLP
    - Partner, 2019-2021
  • Crowe & Dunlevy
    - Shareholder and Director, 2017-2019
    - Associate, 1992-1995
  • Southern Methodist University
    - Adjunct Professor of Law and Lecturer in English, 2000-2016
  • Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP (now Foley and Lardner LLP)
    -Partner, 1999-2017
    -Associate, 1995-1999

Professional Activities

  • American Law Institute

  • American Bar Foundation
  • American Bar Association
    - Antitrust Section
    - Antitrust Section Competition Torts (f/k/a RICO) Committee
  • Texas Bar Association
    - Antitrust Section
  • Oklahoma Bar Association

  • Dallas Bar Association
    - Antitrust Section
  • Dallas Bar Foundation
  • The Hiett Prize in the Humanities
    - Advisory board member and former member of juries
  • Greater Dallas Business Ethics Award
    - Judges panel member
  • The Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet
    - Associate (International) Member
  • Judge, Texas Lawyer, Texas Legal Awards (Lawyer of the Year and Rising Stars, 2022).
  • Master, Eldon B. Mahon Inn of Court (2022-2027)

Honors and Awards

  • Listed in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, 2007-2024

  • Lifetime Achievement Award, Texas Lawyer Texas Legal Awards, 2022
  • Listed in The Best Lawyers in America, 2016-2013

  • Listed in Texas Super Lawyers, 2010-2013, 2019-2021

  • Burton Award for Legal Achievement, 2005

  • Inaugural member, Texas Million Dollar Verdict Hall of Fame, 2013

  • Listed in Global Competition Review (GCR), 2014-2018

  • Listed in Leading Lawyers in Competition Law (Texas), Who’s Who Legal, 2007-2010

  • Fellow, Dallas Bar Foundation

Civic and Charitable Activities

  • University of Kansas Alumni Association

  • Fellow, Dallas Institute of Humanities & Culture

  • D Magazine Best of the Big D Award, (for The Writers Studio), 2004

Selected Publications

Books, Edited Volumes, Monographs & Chapters

  • Author, "The Performance of Law:  Everyday Lawyering at the Intersection of Advocacy and Imagination," (Routledge 2022) 
  • Editor, Texas Business Litigation Quarterly 2015-2018
  • Co-author, “Removal,” 607 Litigation Practice Portfolio Series, BNA, 2016
  • Author, “Fictitious Fraud: Economics and the Presumption of Reliance,” Legal Fictions in Theory and Practice, Springer, 2015
  • Author, “Truth in Context: Sketching a (New) Historicist Legal Pedagogy,” The Moral Imagination and the Legal Life, Ashgate, 2013
  • Co-editor, Exemplary Narratives, a special issue of Law & Literature, Vol. 25, No. 3, 2013
  • Author, Rehumanizing Law: A Theory of Law and Democracy, University of Toronto Press, 2011
  • “Dramatic Deconstruction:  The Plays of Sam Shepard,” unpub. dissertation (1990)

Law Reviews

  • Author, "The Sources and Consequences of Disputes Over Contractual Meaning," University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law, June 17, 2024
  • Author, “Signs and Referents:  The Sources and Consequences of Disputes over Contractual Meaning” (in progress).
  • Author, “A Study in Tartan:  Neil MacCormick’s Literary Humanism” (in progress).
  • Author, "RICO Had a Birthday!  A 50-Year Retrospective of Questions Answered and Open," 105 Marquette Law Review 131, 2021
  • Author, “Making Meaning: Towards a Narrative Theory of Statutory Interpretation and Judicial Justification,” 12 Ohio St. Bus. L. J. 1, 2017

  • Co-author, “Conflict of Laws,” 3 SMU Ann. Tex. Survey 129, 2017

  • Co-author, “Virtuous Billing,” 15 Nev. L. J. 698, 2015; republished in Law & Humanities Ejournal, 19(78), October 21, 2015

  • Author, “Of Gangs and Gaggles: Can a Corporation Be Part of an Association-in-Fact RICO Enterprise?” 16 U. Pa. J. Bus. L. 973, 2014

  • Author, “Institutionalizing Exemplary Narratives: Stories as Models for and Movers of Law,” 25 Law & Literature 337, 2013

  • Author, “Fictitious Fraud: Economics and the Presumption of Reliance,” 9 Int’l J. L. in Context 506, 2013

  • Author, “A Question of Taste: Touchstones for Determining the Certifiability of Class-wide Claims for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief under Rule 23 of The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,” 17 Suffolk J. Trial & App. Advoc. 1, 2012

  • Author, “Clarity and Confusion: RICO’s Recent Trips to the United States Supreme Court,” 85 Tulane L. Rev. 677, 2011

  • Author, “Framing Franchise Antitrust Litigation: The Legacy of Kodak and Queen City Pizza,” 40 SW. L. Rev. 247, 2010

  • Author, “How Lawyers (Come to) See the World: A Narrative Theory of Legal Pedagogy,” 56 Loy. L. Rev. 619, 2010

  • Author, “A Hole in Need of Mending: Copyright and the Individual Marking of Advertisements Published in Collective Works,” 13 SMU Sci. & Tech. L. Rev. 1, 2009

  • Author, “A Question of Fairness: Should Noerr-Pennington Immunity Extend to Conduct in International Commercial Arbitration?” 19 Am. Rev. Int’l Arb. 211, 2008

  • Author, “Crimes That Count Twice: A Reexamination of RICO’s Nexus Requirements Under 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c) and 1964(c),” 32 Vt. L. Rev. 171, 2007

  • Author, “Only One Kick at the Cat: A Contextual Rubric for Evaluating Res Judicata and Collateral Estoppel in International Commercial Arbitration,” 18 Fla. J. Int’l L. 549, 2006

  • Author, “Rethinking Civil RICO: The Vexing Problem of Causation in Fraud-Based Claims under 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c),” 39 U.S.F. L. Rev. 319, 2005 (Burton Award Winner)

  • Co-author, “Reforming the Unbargained Contract: Avoiding Bondholder Claims for Surprise Par Calls,” 55 Bus. Law. 317, 1999

Bar Journals and Other Periodicals

  • Author, “Truman Capote at 100: Time for a Fresh Look at ‘In Cold Blood,’” Texas Lawyer, August 28, 2024
  • Author, "Antitrust Laws and Their Interpretive Dilemmas—A Counseling Scenario (Part 2)," Texas Lawyer, July 25, 2024
  • Author, "Antitrust Laws and Their Interpretive Dilemmas: A Counseling Scenario (Part 1)," Texas Lawyer, April 2, 2024
  • Author, "Interpretation in Context—A Litigation Scenario (Part 2)," Texas Lawyer, March 5, 2024
  • Author, "Interpretation in Context—A Litigation Scenario (Part 1)," Texas Lawyer, February 9, 2024
  • Author, "Professionalism as Interpretation," Texas Lawyer, November 20, 2023
  • Author, "From Profession to Commerce: Tracing the Evolution of the U.S. Legal System and Its Impact on Legal Education," Texas Lawyer, September 22, 2023
  • Author, "Virtue in the Legal Profession and the Culture of Law Schools, Firms," Texas Lawyer, July 21, 2023
  • Author, "True-Life Story Behind 'In Cold Blood' Cautions Against Blind Rule Adherence," Texas Lawyer, May 11, 2023
  • Author, "Sensing an Ending: How Telling Stories Shapes Jurors' Understanding," Texas Lawyer, March 15, 2023
  • Author, "Sensing an Ending: Inevitability in Closing Arguments," Texas Lawyer, November 2, 2022
  • Author, "Replacement or Renewal? Some Thoughts on Legal History," Texas Lawyer, September 8, 2022
  • Author, "A Question of Motive; Closing Argument as Literature," Texas Lawyer, September 1, 2022
  • Author, “Framing Closing Arguments, Part 3,” Texas Lawyer, August 2022
  • Author, "Framing Closing Arguments, Part 2," Texas Lawyer, May 23, 2022
  • Author, "Framing Closing Arguments, Part 1," Texas Lawyer, March 21, 2022
  • Author, "Rhetoric, Improvisation and the Construction of Trial Stories," Texas Lawyer, January 20, 2022
  • Author, "Rhetoric and Improvisation in the Drama of Trial," Texas Lawyer, December 16, 2021
  • Author, "Law and the Art of Representation," Texas Lawyer, December 13, 2021
  • Author, "Staging Law's Stories," Texas Lawyer, September 27, 2021
  • Author, "Stages of Rehearsal: Trial Preparation," Texas Lawyer, June 2021
  • Author, "All the World (or at Least the Whole Courtroom) Is a Stage," Texas Lawyer, May 2021
  • Author, "Simile or Metaphor? Is Trial Like Theater? Or Is It Theater?," Texas Lawyer, March 2021
  • Author, “Rites of Law: Performance in Practice,” Texas Lawyer, October 2020

  • Author, “Icons and Arrangements: How Courtrooms Talk About Themselves,” Texas Lawyer, September 2020

  • Author, “Up in Smoke? Attacks on Marijuana Farming Under RICO,” Bloomberg Law, August 2020

  • Author, “Immigration and the American West: The Myth of the Garden,” Texas Lawyer, August 2020

  • Author, “Saying Things Without Words: The Meaning of Legal Spaces,” Texas Lawyer, July 2020

  • Author, “Pandemic History and the Generation of Law,” Texas Lawyer, May 2020

  • Author, “Of Lions and Lambs in the Time of Coronavirus,” Texas Lawyer, April 2020

  • Author, “Law in the Time of Coronavirus,” Texas Lawyer, April 2020

  • Author, “Is Big Always Bad? 2 Perspectives,” Texas Lawyer, February 2020

  • Author, “50 Years Later, Interpretive Challenges Remain For RICO,” Law360, January 2020

  • Author, “If You Think Atticus Finch Has Become Problematic, Consider William Faulkner,” The Dallas Morning News, November 4, 2019

  • Author, “Mergers in the Age of Populism,” Texas Lawyer, May 15, 2019

  • Author, “Technology and the Lawyer’s Lot: Some Observations from History,” The Texas Lawbook, July 2018

  • Co-author, “Gorsuch and the Coexistence of Natural Law and Originalism,” Law360, April 2018

  • Author, “Q&A with Randy Gordon: American Express case brings antitrust issues to forefront,” NewsOK, April 2018

  • Author, “Reasoning About the Rule of Reason,” Law360, March 2018

  • Author, “Is the Antitrust Rule of Reason Reasonable?” Law360, March 2018

  • Author, “What to Make of CVS-Aetna and Other Megadeals,” Law360, December 2017

  • Author, “Consolidation in Energy Industry Follows Volatility,” Oklahoman, December 2017

  • Author, “Q&A with Randy Gordon: Price Gouging is Illegal During Natural Disasters,” Oklahoman, December 2017

  • Author, “The Walgreens-Rite Aid Combination: Act Two,” Law360, July 14, 2017

  • Author, “Law Schools and Law Firms: Two Cultures Seeking Common Ground,” Law360, March 21, 2017

  • Author, “Strangest Day in Court: The 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing,” Law360, December 16, 2016

  • Author, “Politics and the AT&T-Time Warner Merger,” Law360, November 7, 2016

  • Author, “Antitrust Regulators Didn’t Let Beer Merger Go Flat,” Law360, October 11, 2016

  • Author, “Why Verizon-Yahoo Deal is Raising Privacy Concerns,” Law360, August 11, 2016

  • Author, “The Bayer-Monsanto Deal through and Antitrust Lens,” Law360, June 13, 2016

  • Author, “Megamergers under the Microscope,” Law360, May 24, 2016

  • Author, “Antitrust Claim against Uber Illuminates Perilous Intersection,” Texas Lawyer, April 12, 2016

  • Author, “‘No Unblemished Truth, No Untainted Justice’: A Review of James Robertson’s The Professor of Truth,” 6 Signet 34, 2014

  • Author, “The Road to Hell Is Paved with ‘Particular Intentions’: A Review of Marianne Wesson’s A Death at Crooked Creek,” 17 Green Bag 2D 467, 2014

  • Author, “Letter from America,” SIGNET (regular column, 2011-2016)

  • Co-author, “Corporate Governance Problems Facing the Energy Sector,” Oil & Gas Fin. J., July 19, 2012

  • Author, “Lessons for Supply Chain Businesses: Antitrust Implications of Recent Price-Squeeze Decision by the U.S. Supreme Court,” 16 GSA Forum No. 2, 32, June 2009

  • Author, “Antitrust Roundtable,” 22 Texas Lawyer No. 42 at 1A, December 18, 2006

  • Author, “Hall Center Reaches Out to Community,” KU Collegian, Spring 2005

  • Author, “Lawsuit over Grades Leaves Little Room for Learning,” Fort Worth Business Press, December 5, 2003

  • Author, “Annual RICO Update,” Tex. Bus. Litig. 2002-2010

  • Author, “Network Industry Markets: A Brief Look at the Implications of U.S. v. Visa,” 65 Tex. Bar J., No. 1 at 30, 2002

  • Author, “Parsing Civil RICO: An Outline of Pleading and Proof Requirements for Fraud-Based Claims Under 18 U.S.C. § 1964(c),” Tex. Bus. Litig., Fall 2001

  • Co-author, “Who Is an Expert? Supreme Court Case Redefines the Rules,” 1 Legal Pad 3, 1994

  • Shipley, et al. eds., Oklahoma Environmental Law Handbook, (copy editor) 1992

Media Hits

  • Quoted, "State Fair Case Creates Tension For Gun And Property Rights," Law360, October 4, 2024
  • Quoted, “The Biggest Texas Rulings Of 2024: A Midyear Report,” Law360, August 16, 2024

Selected Speaking Engagements

  • Speaker, "Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act," Tarrant County Bar Association Business Litigation Section, Fort Worth, Texas, December 2, 2021
  • Senior Host, “The Writer’s Studio,” an ongoing series of interviews with contemporary authors. Broadcast locally by KERA and nationally by selected NPR affiliates

  • Speaker, “The Supreme Court as a Rule-Making Body,” The Hockaday School, May 8, 2017

  • Presenter, “Legal Ethics and Liability Issues for University General Counsel,” The Texas A&M University System, Office of General Counsel, April 13, 2017

  • Workshop Faculty Member, “Endings and Beginnings,” The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Leadership Program, April 6, 2016

  • Speaker, “Fictions and Models: Exemplary Narratives as Law,” Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities, University of Connecticut Law School, April 1-2, 2013

  • Speaker, “Compassion and the Rhetoric of Rules,” World Congress of the International Association for the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, Georgetown University, July 27-August 1, 2015

  • Speaker, “Truth in Context: Evidence as a Social Construct,” Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities, University of Virginia, March 10-11, 2014

  • Speaker, “The Lawyer as Virtuous Actor: Is that Still Possible?” Lawyering and Psychology: Coalescing the Field, UNLV/Boyd School of Law, February 21-22, 2014

  • Speaker, “Navigating Multiple Fiduciary Duties: Watch Out for the Rocks!” Texas General Counsel Forum, San Antonio, November 15, 2013

  • Moderator, “Understanding Tragedy, The Impact of the JFK Assassination on Dallas,” Politics Track, November 2, 2013

  • Speaker, “Law-as-Performance,” Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities, University of London/Birkbeck College, March 22-23, 2013

  • Speaker, “Legal Fictions,” World Congress of the International Association for the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, Goethe University, Frankfurt, August 15-20, 2011

  • Panelist, “The Poetry of Emily Dickinson,” McKinney Avenue Contemporary, May 25, 2011

  • Speaker, “What Is a Virtuous Lawyer?” presentation at the Meaning of Virtue in the Professions lecture series, Dallas Institute/SMU, February 1, 2011

  • Panelist, “Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ and the Law-Morality Problem,” at Just and Unjust Laws: A Civil Rights Discussion, Dallas Institute, December 6, 2010

  • Speaker, “Truth in Context: Thinking about Law as and of Environment,” Fellows Symposium, Dallas Institute, November 7, 2009

  • Speaker, “Truth in Context: Sketching a (New) Historicist Legal Pedagogy,” Beyond Text in Legal Education, University of Edinburgh, June 20-21, 2009

  • Panelist, “Humanistic Critiques of Legal Education,” Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities, Suffolk University, April 3-4, 2009

  • Panelist, “Are We Converging Yet?,” Competition Law: A View from Both Sides of the Atlantic, WS Society, Edinburgh, October 13, 2008

  • Speaker, “We, the People–Beyond November 4th,” Dallas Institute, November 19, 2008

  • Moderator, “The Future of Race, Class, and the Law,” Dallas Festival of Ideas, November 8, 2008

  • Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, “Essential Elements of an Effective Antitrust Compliance Program,” “How Stories Become Legal Rules: A Kansas Case,” “A Narrative Theory of Legal Pedagogy,” and “From Law School to Law Practice: Transitional Strategies,” Washburn University School of Law, April 3, 2008

  • Speaker, “How Lawyers (Come to) See the World: A Narrative Theory of Legal Pedagogy,” International Conference on the Future of Legal Education, Georgia State University College of Law, February 20-24, 2008

  • Speaker, “Law, Humanities, and the Future of the Legal Profession,” Hall Center for the Humanities, University of Kansas, January 9, 2008

  • Speaker, “Bellerophon Taming Pegasus: Does Law’s Tie Bind or Strangle?” Fellows Symposium, Dallas Institute, December 1, 2007

  • Seminar Leader, “Institutionalizing Narratives as Legal Rules: The Case of Evidence at Trial,” University of Edinburgh Legal Theory Reading Group, November 21, 2007

  • Speaker, “Measure for Measure: The Rule of Law and the Possibility of Justice,” Dallas Institute Summer Teachers Institute, July 12, 2007

  • Seminar Leader, “Institutionalizing Narratives: A Transformational Theory of Law and Democracy,” Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, May 2, 2007

  • Speaker, “A Clash of Pieties: Antigone and the Roles of Law and Family,” Fellows Symposium, Dallas Institute, November 4, 2006

  • Faculty Member, “Turning Great Expectations into Reality,” a presentation at the Chief Recruitment & Professional Development Officers’ Forum presented by American Lawyer, April 3, 2006

  • Speaker, “Navigating a Course from Practice to Professional Development: Watch Out for the Rocks!” Annual NALP & ALI-ABA Professional Development Institute, December 1-2, 2005

  • Speaker, “Emerging Issues in RICO,” CLE presentation at Texas State Bar Antitrust and Business Litigation Section Annual Seminar, 2005-2006

  • Faculty Member, “Law, Literature and the Possibility of Democracy,” Appellate Judges Summit, November 16, 2004

  • Speaker, “Paving the Road to Democracy: The Humanities as a Foundation,” The Road to Democracy Conference, Dallas Institute/University of Kansas, September 18, 2004

  • Speaker, “Medical and Legal Frontiers: Cloning, Transplants, and the Question of Personal Identity,” Medicine and the City lecture series, Dallas Institute/UT Southwestern Medical Center, May 12, 2004

  • Speaker, “Reason, Objectivity and the Law,” The Enlightenment and Its Discontents Colloquium, University of Kansas, September 5, 2003

  • Speaker, “Ethical Issues in Class Actions: The Putative Class Member Problem,” Texas State Bar Antitrust and Business Litigation Section Annual Seminar, April 2002

  • Guest Lecturer, “Antitrust in the e-Commerce Economy,” SMU/Dedman School of Law, 2001-2016

  • “Legal Writing and Critical Thinking,” in-house CLE presentations, 2000-2006

  • Presentation to the Committee on Trust Indentures and Indenture Trustees at the Annual Meeting of the ABA Section of Business Law, July 8, 2000

  • “Ethics Jeopardy,” in-house CLE panel, 1999

  • Guest Lecturer, “Legal Aspects of Mergers and Acquisitions,” SMU/Cox School of Business, 1997-1999

  • Moderator, The Dallas Institute of Humanities & Culture’s semi-annual Law & Imagination conferences (1997-2000). Presentations (all pertain to ethics and rhetoric) included “Duties, Rights, and the Meaning of Human Freedom under American Constitutionalism” (April 28-29, 2000); “How Lawyers Correct for the Democratic ‘Scorn of Forms’: de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America,” October 21-22, 1999

  • Presenter, “The Guest-Innkeeper Relationship in Oklahoma,” seminar on Hospitality Law in Oklahoma, March 17-18, 1994

  • “Choosing a Method of Doing Business Abroad: Agents, Distributors, Branches, Subsidiaries and Joint Ventures Considered,” “Incoterms,” “Sales of Goods: A Comparison of the UCC and the CISG,” and “International Taxation,” presented to workshop on Legal Aspects of International Trade, Oklahoma District Export Council, February 16, 1994

  • “Problems in Ethics: Recent Developments,” in-house CLE presentation, 1994

  • “Peremptory Challenges: Class-Based Limits,” in-house CLE presentation, 1993

  • “Real Estate Lending Standards: New Federal Regulations,” in-house CLE presentation, 1993