Thomas C. Gordon Jr. papers

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
160 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Brenda Gunn
Phone: (434) 924-1037
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968

Summary

Extent:
3 Cubic Feet 3 archival boxes, 11 paintings
Creator:
Gordon, Thomas C., Jr., 1915-2003
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains notebooks, memoranda, and correspondence 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 lecture notes on legal writing.

The collection also includes eleven paintings.

Biographical / historical:

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 BA in 1936 and his LLB 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 17 May 2003.

Acquisition information:
The papers of Justice Thomas C. Gordon were donated to the Special Collections Department of the Arthur J. Morris Law Library in March 2004 by the law firm of McGuire Woods.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard