PHILADELPHIA, January 7, 2019: Morgan Lewis partner J. Gordon Cooney, Jr. has been elected to The American Law Institute, a leading independent organization that produces critical scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law.
Gordon, a veteran litigator with a long history of successes, focuses his practice on defending class actions in state and federal court. He represents clients in matters throughout the United States in consumer, product liability, deceptive trade practice, toxic tort, RICO, antitrust, and securities class actions. Gordon has appeared in the courts of more than 35 states and has argued before the US Supreme Court and many federal circuit courts. As leader of Morgan Lewis’s global litigation practice, he directs and oversees the firm’s litigation operations across its worldwide offices. Gordon is also a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Clients have consistently recognized the caliber and quality of his work in The Legal 500 US and Chambers USA guides, including in 2018. Most recently he was named a 2018 Influencer of Law for business litigation by The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Gordon’s impact extends beyond the firm to leadership roles in nonprofit organizations. Among other roles, he serves as chair of the board of directors for the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey, and has served as past chair of the US Lacrosse Foundation and past chair and lead member of the inaugural President's Advisory Council of the Gesu School, which serves one of Philadelphia’s most marginalized communities.
American Law Institute (ALI) members include prominent judges, lawyers, and law professors who bring perspectives from a wide variety of legal concentrations and play a principal role in assisting the institution in better adapting the law to social needs, securing better administration of justice, and producing scholarly and scientific legal work. Gordon joins 67 other new members in this latest elected class of ALI members from across the United States.