A conflict management professional for more than thirty years, Mr. Gordon is an experienced mediator, arbitrator, facilitator, educator, and organizational capability builder. Mr. Gordon specializes in sports related conflict management building on a history of contexts that have included business-to-business, organizational change, energy, environmental, real estate and housing, family, and gang-related conflict and disputes. He especially appreciates and enjoys complex, multi-party conflict that requires non-traditional solutions to impasse.
Mr. Gordon has developed creative organizational solutions to ensure competitive success for a number of teams and leagues from collegiate through the professional levels. He has presented to audiences that have included individuals and teams from the NCAA, NBA, NFL, MLS, NRL, MLB, USATF, USTA, PGA, LPGA, and ATP.
Mr. Gordon founded the Sports Conflict Institute (SCI) after previously directing the Competition Not Conflict (CNC) project at the University of Oregon School of Law Appropriate Dispute Resolution Center. Mr. Gordon sees the importance of supporting competitive goals in athletics through understanding, preventing, and resolving destructive conflicts that occur both inside and outside the lines. He is dedicated to minimizing destructive costs of conflict in sports, by looking far below the tip of the iceberg, and fostering the positive value sports can provide to athletes, coaches, supporters, and administrators.
Mr. Gordon has created a number of cutting-edge conflict management tools and curriculum, including, the Play-By-Play Model™, Outside the Box / Inside the Ring™, Stop Bully!™, Sports Conflict Observations Tools (SCOTs)™, and myriad others. He takes a systemic approach to problems that arise in sport through the use of powerful assessment instruments and interventions designed to specifically address the challenge at hand.
Mr. Gordon has a track record of bringing innovative solutions to problems in sports. Examples include establishing one of the first sports ombuds programs in the country; facilitating the introduction of digital trainers to promote cognitive skills associated with competencies such as high-speed decision making, emotional regulation, and feedback mechanisms to Oregon Football, Softball, and Baseball in coordination with Axon Sports; and developing positive reward and accountability systems for Oregon Football program including testing against 500+ cases to ensure behavior outcomes consistent with Coach Chip Kelly’s values, expectations, and goals.
Mr. Gordon has trained thousands of students in mediation, negotiation, and conflict management. As part of the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General, he Instituted mediation and conflict resolution training programs in school systems throughout Massachusetts and was a member of the Conflict Intervention Team designed as first responders to gang violence.
Mr. Gordon serves as the Faculty Athletics Representative and continues to teach undergraduates and graduates at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR on courses related to negotiation, law & sports business, sport brand management, sport & society, sports conflict management, and dispute resolution. He has served the negotiation coach for the ABA Moot Court Negotiation Competition where he successfully coached multiple teams to the National Competition, including the 2013 ABA National Champion which then competed in the International Negotiation Competition as the United States representative.
Mr. Gordon is an arbitrator with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he is on both the Football List and the General List, for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), and a salary arbitrator for Major League Baseball (MLB / MLBPA). He is also a mediator for FIFA. Mr. Gordon Chairs the USATF SafeSport Appeals Committee, as well.
Mr. Gordon serves on the Editorial Board for LawInSport, a knowledge hub and global community that provides expert analysis and commentary on the latest legal developments in sport.
In addition to his career in conflict management and dispute resolution, Mr. Gordon is a competitive runner with recent Masters All-American performances in the mile, 3K, 5K, and 10K distances. He competes as part of the University of Oregon Running Club and the Bowerman Track Club with consistent top 1% finishes.
Mr. Gordon received his Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School, both his Master of Arts and a Graduate Certificate in Dispute Resolution from the University of Massachusetts Boston, and his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology / Sociology with an Certificate in Criminal Justice from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Mr. Gordon now resides in Eugene, Oregon with his wife, Renee, daughter, Junior, and their dog Xennen after spending 15 years in Boston, Massachusetts.