• Trial
  • Antitrust and Trade Regulation
  • Class Action Defense and Prosecution
  • Intellectual Property Litigation
  • RICO Litigation
  • Securities Litigation
• Antitrust Specialty Practice Group
• Global Semiconductor Industry

Randy Gordon is a member of the Gardere Antitrust Specialty Practice Group. His practice is focused on complex litigation, principally in the areas of antitrust and RICO, with secondary emphases on securities and intellectual property. Mr. Gordon has served in leadership roles in numerous class actions, ranging from lead class counsel to chair of a Joint Defense Committee. He also advises businesses on distribution plans and provides analysis of proposed transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, for antitrust issues. In 2006, Mr. Gordon became general counsel of a global trade association serving the semiconductor industry, and has recently counseled clients in over two dozen other industries.

Mr. Gordon's academic work on RICO is routinely cited as authority in lead law reviews (e.g., Yale, Columbia, NYU) and in litigation (e.g.,  European Community v. RJR Nabisco Inc., 2011 WL 843957 (E.D. N.Y.)), including briefing to the U.S. Supreme Court (e.g., Bank of China, Bridge, Anza). As an elected member of the American Law Institute and the Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet, Mr. Gordon participates in a number of projects implicating competition law and complex litigation.

Mr. Gordon also served as the first professional development partner of the Firm.

Mr. Gordon currently represents:

• American International Group Inc.
• Denton County Electric Cooperative Inc. (DBA CoServ)
• Global Semiconductor Alliance
• Jordan Reses Supply Company LLC
• L-3 Communications Corp.
• Many manufacturers and suppliers with complex distribution plans

He has successfully litigated antitrust, RICO and securities disputes, including:

• Currently representing a national medical supply company in unlawful competition case.
• Currently representing AIG in a putative RICO class action.
• Currently representing an electric utility in a putative class action.
• Currently representing Longview Energy Company in a usurpation of corporate opportunity and unlawful competition action against two of its directors and related parties in connection with oil & gas leases in the Eagle Ford shale. A judgment was entered in favor of the client with an estimated value in excess of $500 million. The judgment orders the defendants to convey approximately 46,000 Eagle Ford leasehold acres to the client and to pay the client $95.5 million for past production.
• Secured dismissal of a putative nationwide class action alleging a RICO-fraud conspiracy in the banking and insurance industries (2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16963, affirmed, 454 Fed. Appx. 295 (5th Cir. 2011)).
• Represented two international reinsurance companies in a putative class action.
• Represented an international defense contractor in an aftermarket monopolization case against another international defense contractor; successfully defeated a motion to dismiss.
• Represented a group of homebuilders in an alleged boycott and patent infringement case.
• Successfully transferred from Alabama and then defeated class certification in a consumer case brought against a national accident insurer.
• Successfully defeated claims of a putative class in a securities fraud case (2004 WL 2203253; 440 F.3d 278).
• Successfully defeated—in Alabama federal court—claims of a putative class alleging improper collection of sales tax.
• Successfully defended a national retailer against multiple price fixing, monopolization and price discrimination claims in the Western District of Pennsylvania (403 F.Supp.2d 411; 437 F.Supp.2d 344).
• National counsel for several AIG companies in antitrust, RICO and state law class actions in 14 states.
• Successfully defended Experian Information Solutions Inc. against price discrimination and related claims in the Central District of California.
• Successfully defended Experian Information Solutions Inc. against monopolization and boycott claims in the Northern District of Texas.
• Successfully represented named plaintiff Jackson National Life Insurance Co., its registered investment advisor (PPM America Inc.), and a certified class of bondholders in an action against an issuer for unauthorized redemption of $29.2 million of bonds.
• Successfully defended AIG, Crum & Forster Holdings Corp. and National American Insurance Co. and chaired the joint defense group in a putative class action that alleged a conspiracy in violation of the antitrust laws to stop the Texas Department of Insurance from issuing a rule passing through to policyholders certain surplus generated by the Texas Workers' Compensation Facility.
• Successfully defended AIG in a putative RICO class action alleging that AIG conspired with an international insurance broker and a national employment service to overcharge the employment services’ licensees for workers' compensation insurance.

• Ph.D., University of Edinburgh (2009)
  • Legal Theory
  • Faculty Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (2006-2007)
  • Click here for more on legal theory at the University of Edinburgh
• LL.M., Columbia Law School (1992)
  • International & Comparative Law
  • Parker School Honors in International & Foreign Law
• J.D., Washburn University School of Law, cum laude (1991)
  • Member and Editor, Washburn Law Journal
  • Member, Phi Kappa Phi
• Ph.D., University of Kansas (1990)
  • English (with concentration in Critical Theory & Drama)
  • Recognized, Final Oral Exam Honors
  • Recipient, Dorothy Haglund Dissertation Prize for an Outstanding Dissertation (University of Kansas’ highest award for a dissertation)
• M.A., University of Kansas (1986)
  • English
• B.A., University of Kansas (1984)
  • English

Publications

• Author, A Study in Tartan: Neil MacCormick's Literary Humanism (in progress).
• Author, Of Gangs and Gaggles; Can a Corporation Be Part of an Association-in-Fact RICO Enterprise? (in progress).
• Author, Institutionalizing Exemplary Narratives: Two Cases from the Great Plains, ___ Law & Literature ___ (under peer review) (co-published by University of California Press and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law).
• Author, Fictitious Fraud: Economics and the Presumption of Reliance, ___ Int'l J. L. In Context ___ (under peer review) (Cambridge University Press).
• Author, Truth in Context: Sketching a (New) Historicist Legal Pedagogy, in The Moral Imagination and the Legal Life (Bankowski & Del Mar, eds.) (2013).
• Co-Author with Craig B. Florence, Protecting Fiduciary Duty, Gardere Corp. Alert, Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP, Aug. 2, 2012.
• Co-Author with Craig B. Florence, Corporate Governance Problems Facing the Energy Sector, Oil & Gas Fin. J., July 19, 2012.
• Author, A Question of Taste: Touchstones for Determining the Certifiability of Classwide Claims for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief Under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (2012).
• Author, Rehumanizing Law: A Theory of Law and Democracy (University of Toronto Press) (2011).
• Author, Clarity and Confusion: RICO's Recent Trips to the United States Supreme Court, 85 Tul. L. Rev. 677 (2011).
• Author, Letter from America, Signet (2011-present, regular column).
• Author, Framing Franchise Antitrust Litigation: The Legacy of Kodak and Queen City Pizza, 40 Sw. L. Rev. 247 (2010) (lead article).
• 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) (lead article).
• Author, Lessons for Supply Chain Businesses: Antitrust Implications of Recent Price-Squeeze Decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, 16:2 GSA Forum 32 (June 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) (Columbia/Parker School).
• 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, Antitrust Roundtable, 22:42 Tex. Law., Dec. 19, 2006, at 1A.
• 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 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 - Library of Congress/Law Library of Congress).
• Author, Annual RICO Update, Tex. Bus. Litig. (2002-present).
• Author,  Network Industry Markets: A Brief Look at the Implications of U.S. v. Visa, 65:1 Tex. B.J., at 30 (2002).
• Author, Parsing Civil RICO: An Outline of Pleading and Proof Requirements for Fraud-Based Claims Under U.S.C. § 1964(c), Tex. Bus. Litig. (Fall 2001).
• Co-Author with Robert S. Blanc, Reforming the Unbargained Contract: Avoiding Bondholder Claims for Surprise Par Calls, 55 Bus. L. 317 (1999).

Selected Presentations

• Chair, Arts and Legal Reasoning Panel, Address before the Association for the Study of Law, Culture and Humanities, Birkbeck, University of London (March 22, 2013) (authored paper for conference proceedings).
• Co-Speaker with Mark W. Bayer, Address at Session Three of the Gardere Litigation Toolbox: Litigation Avoidance - Insurance, Indemnification, Lawsuit Budgeting and Timeframes (Oct.. 17, 2012).
• Co-Speaker with Craig B. Florence, Address for Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP eSolutions Webinar: Practical Advice to Board Members Concerning Their Fiduciary Duties (Sept. 19, 2012).
• Invited Speaker, Address at the World Congress of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy: Legal Fictions, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany (Aug. 15-20, 2011) (authored paper for series proceedings).
• Panelist, The Poetry of Emily Dickinson, McKinney Avenue Contemporary (May 25, 2011).
• Invited Speaker, Address at the Dallas Institute/SMU Meaning of Virtue in the Professions Lecture Series: What is a Virtuous Lawyer? (Feb. 1, 2011) (authored paper for series proceedings).
• Panelist/Speaker, Address at the Dallas Institute's Just and Unjust Laws: A Civil Rights Discussion - Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and the Law - Morality Problem (Dec. 6, 2010).
• Invited Speaker, Address at the University of Edinburgh's Beyond Text in Legal Education Forum: Truth in Context - Sketching a (New) Historical Legal Pedagogy (June 20-21, 2009).
• Moderator, The Future of Race, Class and the Law (one of four tracks at the Dallas Festival of Ideas, featuring David Brooks, Nicholas Kristof, Elizabeth Kolbert, Maya Wiley and Michael Beschloss) (Nov. 2008).
• Invited Speaker, Address at the WS Society's Competition Law Seminar - A View from Both Sides of the Atlantic: Are We Converging Yet?, Edinburgh, Scotland (Oct. 13, 2008).
• Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, Addresses at the Washburn School of Law: 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 (Spring 2008) (authored papers for program proceedings).
• Invited Speaker, Address before the International Conference on the Future of the Legal Profession, Georgia State University College of Law: How Lawyers (Come to) See the World: A Narrative Theory of Legal Pedagogy (Feb. 20-24, 2008) (authored paper for conference proceedings).
• Seminar Leader, Address at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh: Institutionalizing Narratives: A Transformational Theory of Law and Democracy (May 2, 2007) (authored paper for program proceedings).
• Faculty Member, Address at the Chief Recruitment & Professional Development Officers’ Forum by the American Lawyer: Turning Great Expectations into Reality (April 3, 2006) (authored remarks for forum proceedings).
• Invited Speaker, Address at the Annual NALP & ALI-ABA Professional Development Institute: Navigating a Course from Practice to Professional Development (Dec. 1-2, 2005) (authored paper for program proceedings).
• Faculty Member, Address at the Appellate Judges Summit (inaugural conference of the Appellate Judges Education Institute): Law, Literature and the Possibility of Democracy (Nov. 6, 2004) (authored paper for summit proceedings).

• Elected Member, American Law Institute (Member Constituency Groups, Restatement 3d: Aggregate Litigation & International Commercial Arbitration)
• Elected Member (Associate/International), The Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet
• Admitted to practice before:
  • Texas State Courts
  • Oklahoma State Courts
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern, Southern and Eastern Districts of Texas
  • U.S. District Court for all districts of Oklahoma
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit
  • U.S. Supreme Court
• Member, State Bar of Texas
  • Chair, Antitrust and Business Litigation Section (2007-2008)
• Member, Oklahoma Bar Association
• Member, American Bar Association
  • Antitrust Law Section
  • Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar Section
    • Member, Professionalism Committee
    • Qualified Team Member, Law School Site Evaluations
    • Former Member, CLE Committee
• Member, Dallas Bar Association
  • Antitrust & Trade Regulation Section
• Fellow, Dallas Bar Association

• Recognized, Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business (Tom Wicker ed., Chambers & Partners) (2007-2012)
  • Antitrust [Texas]
• Recognized, Texas Super Lawyers, Law & Politics Media Inc. as published in Texas Monthly (2010-2012)
  • Antitrust Litigation
• Recognized, Who's Who Legal (2007-2010)
  • Antitrust [Texas]
• Recipient, Faculty Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh (2006-2007)
• Recipient, Burton Award for Legal Achievement in Recognition of Exceptional Legal Writing (2005)
• Recognized, Best of Big D, D Magazine (2004) (for the Writers Studio)

• Adjunct Faculty, Dedman School of Law, Southern Methodist University Courses:
  • Problems in Private Antitrust Litigation
  • How Lawyers See the World: Theories of Legal Interpretation, Justification and Institutionalization
• Adjunct Faculty, SMU, Master of Liberal Arts Courses:
  • Literature of the Great Plains: A Study in Environment
  • Law and Literature: Parallel Interpretive Strategies
  • Marcel Proust and the Modern Tradition: Literature, Philosophy, Art
  • Americans in Paris: The Lost Generation and Its Millieu
  • Discovering Proust: “Swann’s Way” and the Texture of Memory
• Member, Founding Dean Search Committee, University of North Texas College of Law
• Co-Organizer with Dean John Attanasio, SMU Dedman School of Law, "Critical Choices: Education Decisions for the Next Generation of Lawyers," National Conference, Co-Presented by SMU, The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar Section of the ABA, and the Professional Development Consortium (April 2004)
• Member, University of Kansas Chancellors and Deans Clubs
• Former Member, Advisory Board, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, University of Kansas
  • Former Member, Executive Committee
• Former Member, Advisory Board, Hall Center for the Humanities, University of Kansas
• Senior Host, “The Writers Studio” (ongoing series of interviews with contemporary authors broadcast nationally by KERA)
• General Counsel, The Writer's Garret Literary Center
  • Former Board Chair
• Member, Advisory Board, Hiett Prize in the Humanities
• Member, Advisory Board, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas
• Member, Highland Park United Methodist Church
• Fellow, The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture
  • Member, Advisory Board
  • Former Board President
• Guest Lecturer, Address at the SMU Dedman School of Law: Antitrust in the e-Commerce Economy (2001-present)
• Former Board Member, Professional Development Consortium (2004-2006)
• Former Faculty Member, Appellate Judges Education Institute (Nov. 2004)
• Former Event Chair, Jingle Bell Run (2000)
• Former Member, Advisory Board, Highland Park Literary Festival
• Former Member, The Simons Public Humanities Fellowship Selection Committee (2005-2009)