About
Focused on appellate litigation
Joshua Gordon's practice is devoted to assisting businesses, individuals, law firms, and institutional attorneys who find themselves litigating on the appellate level. Attorney Gordon has handled 178 federal and state appeals since 1993. Many have resulted in full written opinions, some have been decided by unpublished decree, and others have settled when private resolutions were appropriate.
Because appellate litigation is a niche, Attorney Gordon's practice spans a wide variety of legal practice areas, including commercial disputes, employment, land use, divorce, custody, probate, government agency, criminal, white collar crime, and personal injury. He has handled cases in family law including pensions, pre-nuptials, cross-state jurisdiction, adoption, child welfare and custody. He has argued construction and building appeals from several perspectives. Attorney Gordon has been involved in commercial and employment cases, including non-competes, trade secrets, securities, and consumer protection. He has several times vindicated the rights of people wrongly convicted.
Many trial attorneys are unfamiliar with the specialized rules of an appellate forum, or cannot find the uninterrupted time required for detailed appellate research and writing. This is especially true if an appeal poses new or important constitutional or statutory questions, requires state-by-state comparison of law, or involves legislative history. Sometimes separate appellate counsel may improve a case because the appellate attorney was not involved with trial strategy decisions and is therefore not colored by them.
Attorney Gordon's legal briefs are well researched, well documented, well written, and good-looking. His oral advocacy is professional and organized. He can seamlessly conduct an appellate case from notice of appeal through final decision, while ensuring trial counsel and other professionals maintain their existing client relationships.
Attorney Gordon is located near Concord, the state capital. He maintains subscriptions to major federal and state electronic research databases, and is close to New Hampshire’s only major law libraries and the New Hampshire archives.
If you or your client are involved in or considering an appeal, please call.
Bar Memberships
- United States Supreme Court (admitted July 12, 1996)
- First Circuit Court of Appeals (admitted March 7, 1996)
- Maine Federal Court (admitted January 26, 1996)
- New Hampshire Federal Court (admitted November 20, 1992)
- Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (admitted August 26, 1994)
- Maine Supreme Judicial Court (admitted May 18, 1992)
- New Hampshire Supreme Court (admitted June 1, 1992)
Professional Associations and Board Memberships
- Planning Board, Town of Canterbury New Hampshire
- New Hampshire Bar Association
- New Hampshire Bar Association, former member, Bar News Advisory Board
- American Bar Association
- ABA Appellate Practice Committee
- New Hampshire Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
- National Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers
- American Society for Legal History
- New Hampshire Supreme Court Historical Society
- New Hampshire Historical Society
- UNH School of Law Library
- New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, former member of Board of Directors, and former member of Legal Screening Panel
- Campaign for Ratepayers Rights, former member of Board of Directors
- New Hampshire Association for Justice
- New Hampshire Task Force on Privacy (appointed by N.H. Governor Jeanne Shaheen)
- Member, First Circuit Criminal Justice Act (CJA) Panel
- Scribes, American Society of Legal Writers
Articles and Journal Publications
- Offers of Proof: A View from the Transcript, N.H. Bar News (Aug. 14, 2009).
- How the Appellate Landscape Has Changed, N.H. Bar News (Dec. 19, 2003).
- 'Impersonating a Lawyer?' History of New Hampshire's Unauthorized Practice of Law Statute,43 N.H. Bar Journal 22 (June 2002).
- How I use My Small-Firm Web Site, N.H. Bar News (Jan. 14, 2002).
- A Lawyer's Practical Guide: Reviewing Changes in N.H. Supreme Court Procedural Rules, 9 N.H. Bar News 26 (Nov. 18, 1998).
- 'All Sail and No Anchor': Interlocutory Appeals in New Hampshire, 38 N.H. Bar Journal 69 (March 1995).
- What's Moot and What's Not: The Law of Mootness in New Hampshire, 36 N.H. Bar Journal 69 (March 1995).
- A Euclid Turn: R.B. Construction Co. v. Jackson and the Zoning of Baltimore, 22 Maryland Historian 26 (1991).
Teaching, Appellate Conferences and Seminars
- Instructor, Know Your Rights Workshops, Seminars for High School Students (ongoing)
- Faculty, New Hampshire Municipal Law Association, Seminar on Lawyer Confidentiality and the Right-to-Know (June 22, 2011)
- Federal Criminal Appellate Practice Seminar (Portland, Maine, May 13, 2011)
- Faculty, New Hampshire Association of Justice Family Law Forum (Feb. 18, 2011)
- Federal Practice Institute (Nov. 12, 2010)
- ABA Appellate Judges Institute, San Francisco (2005)
- US District Court, Federal Sentencing After Booker (2005)
- Faculty, New Hampshire Bar Association, Appellate Advocacy CLE (2002)
- Faculty, New Hampshire Trial Lawyers Association, Family Law Forum CLE (2001)
- Committee on Cooperation with the Court, New Hampshire Appellate System: Looking to the Future, Barlett N.H. (Nov. 19-20, 1999).
- Defense Research Institute, Appellate Advocacy Seminar, Washington, D.C. (Jan. 28-29, 1999).
- Boston Bar Foundation, First Circuit Appellate practice Seminar, Boston, MA (Oct. 23, 1997).
- New Hampshire Bar Association, Oral Advocacy for Lawyers, Manchester, N.H. (July 18, 1996).
- New Hampshire Bar Association, New Hampshire Appellate Practice, Bedford, N.H. (Jan. 19, 1996).
Judicial Clerkship
- Judicial Clerk for Justice William Batchelder (retired) New Hampshire Supreme Court (1991-1992).
Education
- Juris Doctor, University of Maryland School of Law, Baltimore, MD, 1991.
- Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, University of New Hampshire, Durham, N.H., 1984.
- Oyster River High School, Durham, N.H. (1979)
