Larry S. Gibson

Overview

Larry S. Gibson serves as Of Counsel to the Firm and concentrates in litigation and administrative law. He has been teaching law since 1972 and served as a Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law, where he taught Evidence, Civil Procedure, Racial Discrimination and the Law, and Election Law for decades. He has also taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Mississippi, and the University of Aberdeen (Scotland).

Mr. Gibson is the author of Young Thurgood: The Making of a Supreme Court Justice (Prometheus Books, 2012). Hailed by historian Taylor Branch as “a triumph of discovery and restraint,” the biography covers Thurgood Marshall’s education and early legal career. Kirkus Reviews has described the book as “a well-researched and engaging biography and a fine addition to Marshall scholarship.” A second installment, The Conductor: How Thurgood Marshall Orchestrated Civil Rights in the South (1935-1955), will be published this year.

An experienced political organizer, Mr. Gibson was campaign manager for the Honorable Kurt L. Schmoke in his successful elections in 1987, 1991, and 1995 as Mayor of the City of Baltimore. He has run numerous other election campaigns, including the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign in Maryland. In recent years, he has advised the campaigns of African political leaders, including the President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

During the administration of President Jimmy Carter, Mr. Gibson was Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States. In that capacity, he served as vice chairman of the National Security Council Working Group on Terrorism, which coordinated the counter-terrorism efforts of numerous federal agencies, and director of the National Economic Crimes Project at the U.S. Department of Justice. He planned and coordinated various matters relating to the activities of the Justice Department, including investigations, corrections, law enforcement assistance, and intergovernmental relations.

From 1973 to 1977, Mr. Gibson was on the faculty of the American Academy of Judicial Education. In the 1980s, he served as Reporter to the Maryland Court of Appeals Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure and played a major role in the reorganization of the Maryland Rules of Procedure. He also served for ten years on the committee of the National Board of Law Examiners that develops the Evidence section of the Multi-State Bar Examination. Since 1990, he has been a member of the American Law Institute, which drafts Restatements of the Law.

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Credentials

Education

• Columbia University, New York (L.L.B., 1967), Dean’s List
• Howard University, Washington, D.C. (B.A., 1964)

Bar Admissions

• Maryland
• United States Supreme Court

Honors & Awards

• Listed in Best Lawyers in America®, Civil Rights Law
• Maryland Daily Record Leadership in Law Award 2004
• Maryland Daily Record Lifetime Achievement Award 2026

Affiliations

• Member, Monumental City Bar Association
• Columbia University Law School Board of Visitors
• Founder, Baltimore-Gbarnga (Liberia) Sister-City relationship, 1973
• Participant, First Liberian Judicial Conference
• U.S. Delegation, European Preparatory Meeting for the Fifth U.N. Conference on Crimes and the Treatment of Prisoners (Bonn, Germany), 1977
• Co-Chairman, Baltimore Bicentennial Celebration, 1997
• Visiting Professor of Law, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, 1996

Badges

Practice Groups

Litigation