Gordon Park to Receive Civility Award

The San Joaquin Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates will present this year’s Civility Award to Gordon Park at its Annual Meeting on April 12, 2025. A respected leader in the Central Valley legal community, Gordon has spent his career exemplifying excellence in trial advocacy, generosity of spirit, and unwavering professionalism—and has been a proud member of ABOTA for 35 years.

Gordon was born and raised in Los Angeles.  He attended Cal State Long Beach because it was the only college in California that did not require he take any math class to graduate.  He married Susan, his college girlfriend, in August 1973 right before he attended UCLA Law School.   Susan did not want to raise a family in Los Angeles and so, he agreed to interview with any law firms not from LA.   He finally interviewed with McCormick Barstow.  Apparently, the interview went well, until the partner interviewing him asked “do you have any questions for me?”  Gordon then said, “yes, where exactly is Fresno?”  In spite of that, he was hired and has been with the firm ever since.  

As most of you know, he is an accomplished trial lawyer completing almost 70 jury trials.  He became a member of ABOTA in 1989.  When the firm asked a partner to volunteer to take the Nevada bar Gordon volunteered.  He then discovered that the NV had one of the three hardest Bar exams in the country and required everyone, even a 48 yr old civil trial lawyer, to take the full three day bar exam!   Lowell Carruth had such confidence he started a pool betting that Gordon would flunk!! The odds began at 8 to 1, and by the time he took the bar the odds were 22 to 1 that he would flunk.  When Gordon passed , others in the firm joked that he had won the money but Gordon said “Nah, I didn’t bet cuz I was pretty sure I’d flunk!”

Gordon has always given of his time helping legal aid  representing battered women to obtain TROs. In 2007, California Lawyer Magazine gave him the “Angel Award” for his pro bono work.  CCLS gave him “Pro Bono Attorney of the year Award” in 2022,  He also was given the “Judge Blaine Pettit Mentor of the Year” award for helping younger attorneys.  The Fresno County Bar Assoc gave him its prestigious “Bernie Witkin Lifetime Achievement Award.”  He also served on the Fresno County Bar Board of Directors for several years and was elected Fresno County Bar president in 2006.  He spent countless hours first coaching high school mock trial teams for 10 years, then, in 2005 he founded and coached the Fresno State Mock Trial team retiring in 2020 due to Covid,  He said his proudest legacy is to have over 22 of his Fresno State alumni mockers practicing law in the San Joaquin Valley.

What you may not know is that Gordon, as head of his family, along with Susan, his mother, sister and brother in law, won $10,000 on the TV show Family Feud.  When first called to the podium facing the head of the opposing family, he quickly answered the question “name something or someone a man treats better than he does his wife?” Gordon blurted out “his dog!”  It became a running joke for the rest of the show that Gordon treats a dog better than he does his wife. Luckily, Susan was laughing!

They have three adult children:  Ryan (who made it to #5 on the TV show Bachelorette), Lauren (graduated #1 in her class at Pepperdine Law School) and Travis (who did ROTC and then commanded an infantry platoon in Afghanistan receiving the Bronze Star Medal for heroism).  They also have 9 grandchildren aged 12 to 4.