Tribute to Mark Gordon (pdf)

A Celebration of the Life of Mark Gordon (ppt)

August 2, 2006

On July 29, 2006, International Technology Law Association, Inc. lost a good friend, supporter and past president when Mark L. Gordon died. Mark and his wife, Shelley, were killed in a fire that occurred in their home in Chicago. Mark was the managing partner of the law firm of Gordon & Glickson in Chicago, a well-known tech law boutique firm, which merged earlier this year with McGuireWoods. He served as president of our organization from 1993 to 1994 in the years leading up to the “dot com” era.

Mark’s expertise and reputation as a leading technology lawyer were internationally recognized. He will be remembered as a pioneer in the field of tech law. Mark's contributions were felt as both a leader and participant in the association’s popular conferences throughout the world. Some highlights of Mark’s many presentations include:

 - “Negotiating Session for Computer Systems Acquisition Including Custom Software” with CLA past president, Edward F. Lange, at CLA’s 1990 Vancouver conference

 - “Handling Systems Integration Contracts” at the CLA 20th Anniversary conference in Washington DC in 1991

 - “Presidents’ Forum” in Sydney, Australia in 1993 which reviewed the top tech issues of the year from CLA past presidents’ vantage points with Mark Gordon, Ed Lange, Dan Brooks, Susan Nycum and Paul Bent

 - “Representing the Tech Client” at the CLA Atlanta conference in 1994

 - "Outsourcing and Service Level Agreements" at the 2002 Advanced Issues in IT Law conference held in Orlando, Florida on October 3-4, 2002

 - "Commercial Exploitation of Open Source Programs" at the 3rd Conference of The Americas in Mexico City on December 1-2, 2005.

Mark graduated from the University of Michigan in 1973 and received his law degree from Northwestern University Law School in 1976. He authored “Computer Software: Contracting for Development and Distribution.”

I know many of us who were close to Mark have expressed the desire to honor him in a lasting way; therefore, we have established an ad hoc committee to explore various ideas for remembering Mark and his contributions to our association. Our 2007 Annual Meeting and World Congress will be held in Mark's hometown of Chicago on April 26-27. We will have a ceremony at the conference. If you wish to join the planning group, please send an email to Diana McKenzie (dmckenzie@ngelaw.com), Ken Dort (kdort@mcguirewoods.com) or Rob Weiss (rweiss@ngelaw.com).

On behalf of ITechLaw and its Board and Executive Committee Members, I extend my deepest sympathies to Mark and Shelley’s families and in particular to their son, Michael.
 

Richard Allan Horning, President