Robert Gordon (psychologist)

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Dr. Robert Gordon
Dr. Robert Gordon

Robert Gordon (born May 22, 1944), a noted clinical psychologist and attorney, is an internationally recognized expert in jury research, a field he helped develop and that he continues to advance. Gordon also is a respected authority and innovator in the area of forensic psychology, another professional discipline that he helped pioneer. Gordon has been an innovator in employing the Internet to conduct online jury research, including community polls and trial venue studies. He is believed to be the first legal professional in America, and the world, to apply brain-mapping techniques on a practical basis to help couples resolve pre- and post-divorce conflicts.

Gordon is the author of three books and numerous comprehensive articles on legal and psychology topics. He has been featured as a legal analyst on the MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour, ABC's Nightline, CNN News, Larry King Live, Fox News, MSNBC, Good Morning America, and Sky TV. His work also has been reported on in articles in USA Today, Reuters News, and in leading magazines and newspapers overseas.

A prominent trainer and educator, Gordon is the recipient of numerous professional awards and honors.

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[edit] Forensic Psychology

As one of its very earliest practitioners, Gordon helped develop the field of forensic psychology from the ground floor up. He was one of the first forensic psychologists in the country, or around the world, to assist courts with the comprehensive psychological evaluation of parents, vis-à-vis child custody, visitation, and divorce disputes. Indeed, Gordon is believed to be one of the first mental health professionals in the United States to be requested by family courts to provide expert testimony and learned recommendations concerning the proper disposition of child custody cases. Such qualified testimony, which is always preceded by extensive interviews of the affected children and parents, is now considered indispensable in the resolution of child custody disputes.

The first child custody case in which Gordon participated in the capacity of a forensic psychologist, opining as an expert regarding how the custodial dispute should be decided, took place in Dallas in 1972. Since then, Gordon, as an expert assigned by the Texas courts, has conducted thousands of clinical examinations of parents; and has testified in all of the accompanying child custody cases. Additionally, since the early 1970s, Gordon has trained two generations of professionals as forensic psychologists. Gordon has further elevated the forensic psychology field through the development of now widely used professional tools, such as the custody quotient test of effective parenting, which he created with Professor Leon Peek of the University of North Texas, and the application of cutting-edge technologies, such as brain-mapping, which he uses to help parents resolve their pre- and post-divorce conflicts.

For the past four decades, Gordon has developed a wide array of diagnostic and evaluative tools for clinicians involved in this important work. In addition to the custody quotient test of effective parenting, these include the primary parenting scales and the parent imaging profile.

Gordon and his associates, including Tanya Taylor, a psychologist, are currently developing various graphical displays of an automated nature that can be used to illustrate individuals' particular cognitive and emotional attributes, as well as deficits, vis-à-vis their parenting and related skills. This helpful diagnostic information, which can be quickly portrayed in an easily understood visual format, can be useful to help the individuals focus on parenting skills areas that need to be improved.

[edit] Jury Research

Besides his seminal work in forensic psychology, Gordon also played a major role during the late 1960s and 1970s in helping to establish jury research as a viable professional field. While studying the dynamics of small group conflict resolution at the University of Oklahoma, Gordon decided to conduct research concerning the deliberative processes of juries. As part of his doctoral dissertation in psychology, Gordon organized 18 "mock" juries to deliberate concerning the same simulated civil case. While each group of jurors was provided with identical facts and presentations concerning the case, their verdicts differed significantly regarding liability and the amount of damages awarded. Gordon audio taped the mock jury proceedings and analyzed the results, which formed the basis of his doctoral dissertation, entitled "Jury Verdicts."

At the time, little formal research had been done on the subject of juror deliberations. Indeed, "Jury Verdicts" represented one of the first bona fide scientific studies concerning this topic. Intrigued with the results of his preliminary mock jury experimentation and envisioning the practical application of jury research procedures for actual trials, Gordon decided to study law after receiving his doctorate in psychology. Thus, he would be knowledgeable concerning not only the psychological and social dynamics of juror deliberations; but also regarding the legal issues of cases tried in court, as well as with courtroom procedures.

In 1971, after graduating from Baylor Law School and passing the Texas bar exam, Gordon began work in both Dallas and Houston as a jury research professional, or as is now more commonly known, a trial consultant. As one of the field's earliest practitioners, Gordon developed and perfected many of the jury research procedures that are now widely used by trial consultants throughout the world.

As pioneered by Gordon, jury research employs jury simulations, jury focus groups, pretrial polling, and similar scientifically valid forecasting procedures and techniques to predetermine how jurors will regard the case; what they will expect to learn during trial; what the ideal trial theme should be; what key case issues jurors will consider the most important; and related helpful information. Armed with this invaluable data, the attorney can determine a trial presentation strategy that offers an increased opportunity for success. Jury research consultants assist attorneys in numerous other ways, including with juror de-selection during voir dire; and by helping to plan case presentations, doing venue analysis, conducting post-verdict interviews of the jurors, and so on.

Research techniques used to determine juror attitudes have been successfully adapted in recent years for use in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) cases that are to be settled in such forums as arbitration, mediation, and bench trials.

Today, thousands of professional trial consultants operate in the United States and around the world. Gordon has personally trained hundreds of psychologists in jury research procedures.

Gordon is founder and director of The Wilmington Institute, a Dallas and Houston firm with a nationwide jury research practice. He has provided consultation and trial planning assistance to attorneys for more than a thousand trials and legal disputes. These include many of the most highly publicized American jury trials of the past four decades. During this period, Gordon worked closely with numerous nationally prominent attorneys, including Richard "Racehorse" Haynes, John O'Quinn, Wendell Turley, Mike McCurley, David Berg, and Steve Susman. He also has provided jury research and related professional assistance to many of America's largest corporations and law firms regarding intellectual property cases, and other complex commercial legal disputes.

Gordon has provided professional jury research assistance regarding legal suits arising from the 1984 Bhopal chemical plant explosion inIndia, the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in the former Soviet Union, the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the 1999 Columbine high school massacre in Jefferson County, Colorado, and the 2001 attack that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City. Besides his work with lawyers, Gordon also is routinely asked by judges across the country to assess plaintiffs with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) complaints.

In 1992, after the break-up of the Soviet Union, Gordon was invited to Russia, where he consulted with the new Russian government's Ministry of Justice regarding the professional application of scientific jury research methodologies.

[edit] Online Jury Research

Gordon was one of the first trial consultants in America to utilize the Internet for virtual jury research. His "virtual jury" research methodology, which went online in 2002, develops the same type of empirically valid research data concerning juror decision-making that conventional jury research provides. Gordon also has been an innovator in utilizing the Internet for other online testing purposes, including community attitude surveys; and for venue analysis.

[edit] Witness Preparations

Besides his preeminent work in jury research, Gordon has also been a leader in the area of witness preparations. He was one of the first professionals in the country to develop a formal training program to help witnesses learn how to overcome anxiety on the witness stand and thus provide truthful legal testimony that is compelling and credible. Gordon has written two books on witness preparations.

[edit] Brain Mapping

Gordon is charting new territory in the application of brain mapping and EEG biofeedback procedures, and in particular, brain synchrony techniques, to enable people who are involved in divorce and child custody disputes to harmoniously resolve their differences.

In this system, the two disputants are hooked up to a special EEG device that simultaneously monitors, measures, and displays their individual brain waves. Once the individuals' separate brain waves have become synchronous, a corresponding, safe electrical circuit is closed, creating a visual signal to alert the two individuals. This biofeedback mechanism enables the two individuals to clearly identify when their brain waves have become synchronized.

Through such biofeedback, the individuals are able to innately "learn" how to bring their separate brain waves into synchrony in the future. Such synchronization has been shown to promote mental harmony between individuals who are in conflict.

Once the disputants can readily achieve this harmonious state, Gordon then utilizes his training and experience as a clinical psychologist to help them amicably settle their differences and reach agreement.

In addition to this application, Gordon also uses brain mapping to investigate neuropsychological states that inhibit adults and children to voluntarily comply with standards of proper behavior. This applied technique has proved especially useful for dealing with issues associated with addictions. In conjunction with psychotherapy, Gordon employs this approach to help achieve effective remediation of such problems.

Les Fehmi, Ph.D., director of the Princeton Biofeedback Centre, and Susan Shor Fehmi, M.S.W., originally developed and perfected brain synchrony techniques.

[edit] Trial Background

Gordon has been involved with numerous highly publicized trials and legal cases over the years. He consulted with special prosecutors in California for the 1971 trial of notorious serial killer Juan Corona. In 1976, he assisted colorful attorney Richard "Racehorse Haynes in the successful defense of T. Cullen Davis, an oil company head, who had been charged with the murder of his ex-wife's daughter. On behalf of the South Carolina solicitor general, Gordon selected the jury in the 1995 Susan Smith murder case. In 1997, he consulted with the Justice Department on the Timothy McVeigh/Oklahoma City bombing trial. Plus, Gordon conducted extensive jury research on behalf of the State of Texas in a lawsuit against American tobacco companies. This resulted in a $17.3 billion settlement in 1998.

Additionally, Gordon has consulted on numerous other high-profile cases with members of the district attorneys bar, including Arthur "Cappy" Eads, former district attorney of Bell County (Texas) and former president of the National College of District Attorneys. Also, Gordon has consulted and collaborated extensively with FEDNET, an association of retired federal judges.

[edit] Educational and Professional

Gordon earned his B.S. in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1966); his M.S. in psychology from the University of Oklahoma (1967); his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Oklahoma (1968); and his J.D. from Baylor Law School (1971).

While at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Gordon studied with Harry Harlow, who became well known for his maternal-affection experiments on rhesus monkeys. While studying at the University of Oklahoma's Institute of Group Relations, Gordon worked with Muzafer Sherif one of the founders of social psychology; and with Carolyn Wood Sherif, who helped develop social judgment theory.

Gordon is boarded in the specialties of clinical and forensic psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology. Plus, he has been professionally licensed by the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists; New Mexico Board of Psychology; Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards; and the Supreme Court of Texas.

[edit] Publications

Gordon is the author, with his daughter, attorney Ami Gordon, of two books: On the Witness Stand and Focus Group Strategies, both published by The Wilmington Institute. He also authored an e-book entitled The One Minute Witness. Gordon also has authored numerous professional articles, including "Trial Research in the Age of Technology," Trial, June 2000; "Online Trial Science Research: Harvesting Litigation Intelligence About Jurors over the Internet," The Trial Lawyer, July/August 2000 (authored with Alan Gordon and Richard Waites); "Ready for ADR?," For the Defense, March 2001; "The Electronic Personality and Digital Self," Dispute Resolution Journal, February/April 2001; "Reducing Trial and ADR Risks Through Empirical Research," The Trial Lawyer, July/August 2001; and "The Likable Witness," For the Defense, July 2005.

[edit] Awards

In 1991, Gordon received the Distinguished Psychologist Award from the Texas Psychological Foundation for his groundbreaking work in bridging the fields of behavioral science and law. He is the past president of the Texas Psychological Association, and served as chair of the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists.

[edit] Personal life

Gordon lives in Dallas with his wife Susan, who is a creative arts teacher. The Gordons have two children: Ami, an attorney in San Antonio; and Adam, who teaches English in Japan. Gordon is an accomplished artist who works in oil to create oversize paintings of brilliant color and modernistic form. His museum-quality masks collection, assembled from around the world, represent universal juror archetypes.

[edit] See also

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