Eagleton Faculty, Staff and Visiting Associates
Gail B. Gordon, Esq., graduated from Carnegie Mellon University (BA) and attended University of Miami Law School and Duquesne University School of Law. She received her JD with distinction and is a member of the Bar in good standing in PA (2004) and NJ (2008).
Gail Gordon is a well-recognized and respected attorney, effective local advocate and business professional. While Gordon, through her successful firm, focuses much of her effort on issue advocacy, community and public affairs, she also dedicates a significant amount of her time to hospital, charitable and business boards.
Gordon began her career, while still an undergraduate at Carnegie-Mellon University, as a volunteer for long-shot gubernatorial candidate Dick Thornburgh. Shortly after Thornburgh’s victory, the press staff was confronted with the crisis at Three Mile Island. After her tenure in Harrisburg, Thornburgh loaned Gordon to the Reagan White House where she was detailed as a speechwriter — primarily serving EPA Administrator Anne Gorsuch.
Leaving Washington, she joined the world-renowned crisis management and public relations firm Howard J. Rubenstein Associates. In her four years at Rubenstein, she served a number of clients, most notably US Tobacco (UST), the president of which was Miami Dolphin great and NFL Hall of Famer Nick Buoniconti. She met Nick Buoniconti when she coached him for his controversial appearance on “60 Minutes.” Before leaving to join Buoniconti, Ms. Gordon became Rubenstein’s youngest Senior VP.
In 1986, subsequent to the catastrophic football injury sustained by Buoniconti’s son, Marc, she became Vice President at UST and helped Buoniconti create The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami which remains, today, the largest, most comprehensive spinal cord research center in the world. For her efforts, Ms. Gordon was named University of Miami Medical Center’s “Woman of the Year” in 1990. She is featured in the 2020 HBO Emmy-nominated documentary “The Many Lives of Nick Buoniconti,” and her time with Nick and Marc Buoniconti remains an important and seminal part of her life’s journey.
After UST, she returned to her native Pittsburgh to complete her law school education. She was fortunate enough to work part-time with her friend, hockey legend Mario Lemieux, to create the Mario Lemieux Foundation dedicated to cancer and neonatal research. Gordon was part of Lemieux’s team determined to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins out of bankruptcy. Lemieux remains the owner of the team to this day.
In 2006, Gordon married Senator Bob Gordon (current BPU Commissioner). The couple are applauded for their bi-partisan take on NJ politics, often irreverently called “NJ’s Carville and Matalin.” They have been named twice “New Jersey’s #1 Power Couple” by InsiderNJ, and been the subject of a 2017 NJ TV special “Sleeping with the Enemy,” and cover stories in both 2020 NJ Monthly “Strange Bedfellows”, and 2021 Commerce Magazine “NJ’s Power Couple — Bridging the Political Divide.”
She began her NJ business career practicing law, Of Counsel, to Governor Jim Florio’s firm — Florio, Perrucci, Steinhardt & Fader and remains connected to the firm. In conjunction with her legal work, she began and has run, for eleven years, GBGordon LLC, with four associates providing local and business advocacy to a wide range of clients, including: Fortune 500 Crown Castle, Mark Anthony Beverage (maker of White Claw), GPI Engineering, Capelli Soccer, Supor Studios and others.
Her lifelong friendship with the Thornburghs, (As US Attorney General Dick Thornburgh is widely heralded for authoring the Americans with Disabilities Act – ADA), led Gordon to become an advocate for persons with disabilities. She currently serves as a board member of Community Options, a 13-state organization dedicated to housing and employment for persons with disabilities. In 2018, she was awarded the Betty Pendler award for her service.
Other awards include: 2013 Carol Murphy Award (Women’s Political Caucus), 2014 Woman of Distinction (CIANJ), 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award (Duquesne University), 2021 Trailblazer Award (NJBIA), and 2022 CASA Honoree. She has spoken to numerous organizations, including: University of Pittsburgh, Berkeley College, Yale University and PNC Bank. She serves as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Rutgers’ Eagleton Institute, and has annually taught young women at the “Ready to Run” two-day seminar. She has been named to the NJ Globe “Power 100” since its inception.
She is exceptionally proud to be a Trustee of the Hackensack Meridian Health Network and is on the board of the Joseph A. Sanzari Children’s Hospital. Until 2020, she was a board member of SBOne Bank , and since their merger with Provident Bank, serves as a Provident Advisory Board Member.
Her current board service includes: Bergen CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate), Paterson Habitat Advisory Board, U of Pittsburgh’s Dick Thornburgh Center for Law & Public Policy, Vice Chair, Community Options and Felician University.
Gordon served on Chris Christie’s 2008-09 Finance Committee and as co-chair of the Human Services Transition Team. Her service to Governor Christie continued from 2010-2017 when she served as Vice Chair of the NJ Hall of Fame. She was also selected Chair of the NJ Governor’s Conference for Women 2011-2012 and tripled attendance in the second year to over 1700 participants. In 2019, Governor Murphy appointed her to the Complete Count Commission, formed to promote accuracy and inclusion in the 2020 US Census.