Professor Deborah S. Gordon

Deborah Gordon is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Law at Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law. Her scholarship explores the intersection of language, emotion, and gender in inheritance law. An English major in college and English teacher thereafter, Professor Gordon also uses narrative theory, rhetorical theory, and literature to explore intergenerational donative transfers and fiduciary responsibilities.

Professor Gordon’s publications include "Engendering Trust," in the University of Wisconsin Law Review, “Mor(t)ality & Identity: Wills, Narratives, and Personal Possessions,” in the Yale Journal for Law & the Humanities, “Forfeiting Trust,” in the William & Mary Law Review, “Trusting Trust,” in the University of Kansas Law Review, "Letters Non-Testamentary," also in the University of Kansas Law Review, and “Reflecting on the Language of Death,” in the Seattle University Law Review. Professor Gordon also is a co-author of the casebook “Experiencing Trusts & Estates” (West Academic 2021) and a co-editor of Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Trusts & Estates Opinions (Cambridge University Press 2020). Professor Gordon was chosen by graduating students to receive the Dean Jennifer L. Rosato Excellence in the Classroom Award in 2017 and 2020.

Professor Gordon has chaired the American Association of Law School’s Trusts & Estates section, served on the Governing Board of the Legal Writing Institute’s Writer’s Workshop, served on the Executive Board of the American Association of Law School's Humanities section. 

A graduate of New York University School of Law, Professor Gordon served as editor-in-chief of The New York University Law Review. She graduated Magna Cum Laude, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and received the Benjamin F. Butler memorial Award for Scholarship, Character and Professional Activities, the N.Y.U. Alumnae Key Pin for the Outstanding Female Law School Graduate, and the Judge Rose L. & Herbert Rubin Law Review Prize. After law school, she clerked for Judge I. Leo Glasser of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, served as Sullivan & Cromwell’s pro bono fellow, and practiced practiced at Day Berry & Howard (now Day, Pitney) in Stamford, Connecticut, where she handled sophisticated estate planning, business and succession planning, pre-marital planning, estate administration, and litigation involving fiduciaries and beneficiaries.