Alumni

ALUMNI  |  GOING PLACES

Army Advocate
Lawyer and Captain Joanne Gordon '02 provides legal assistance for soldiers before they go and after they return from war.

By Cara Jepsen '86

While serving in the Army's legal department at Fort Bliss, Texas, Captain Joanne Gordon '02 sometimes rappels off 40-foot-towers. "Not every lawyer can do that," she says. (Photo courtesy of Joanne Gordon '02)

On a typical day, U.S. Army Captain Joanne Gordon ’02 awakens at 5 a.m. and arrives at work by 6:15 a.m., where she exercises for an hour with other attorneys in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps [JAG Corps] stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas. Then she showers, eats breakfast, and is at her desk from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. or later — advising soldiers and their family members on everything from landlord-tenant disputes to estate planning.

“Every morning I wake up and I’m excited to go to work — even days I don’t want to get out of bed,” says the 26-year-old attorney, who grew up in Clarendon Hills, Illinois. “It’s a great experience to be in an office environment where I’m seeing clients and it feels like a general practice and then to walk outside [and be on an army base]. I was driving to work the other morning and two stealth bombers just screamed overhead, and I just about drove off the road.”

There are some 1,300 judge advocates in the U.S. Army JAG Corps, which serves as the army’s legal department. JAG Corps attorneys rotate jobs every six to 12 months, and Gordon has no idea what her next assignment will be. “You end up being well versed in a lot of areas of law,” she says.

She currently works in the Legal Assistance division, where she helps soldiers and their families resolve civil legal issues at no cost. She also processes soldiers who are about to be deployed, helping them with such issues as divorce counseling, setting up powers of attorney, getting arrest warrants lifted or prevented, or clearing up traffic violations. Often, it’s the first time the soldiers realize they’re going off to war.

“I’ve had grown men in my office crying because they’re afraid they’re not coming home,” she says. “For a 26-year-old female, it’s hard to know what to say. It’s hard to tell them everything’s going to be okay.”

She adds, “In my office, no one has to be too proud, or too strong, or too brave. They get to be human, scared for their futures, worried about their families, struggling over broken relationships and broken marriages. It’s my job to help them prioritize and set their lives back on a path to normalcy.” Gordon copes by venting to other attorneys. “I have a good friend in Korea doing the same thing I am. It’s good to know that miles away we have the same issues. It makes the world seem a little smaller.”

Although three of her grandparents served in World War II, Gordon didn’t consider joining the army until she came across a promotional packet for the United States Military Academy at West Point when she was a junior in high school. “I think some people wake up one day and think, ‘This is a good thing out there, and this is what I want to do with my life.’

“But if I went to West Point I’d have to wait a few years before I went to law school,” she adds. She learned about Lake Forest College from her sister-in-law, Maria Nassos Gordon ’97. 
 
At the College she worked in the mailroom and became president of her sorority, Gamma Phi Omega (now Delta Gamma). The Deerpath and Leadership Scholar also served on the General Assembly and as a member of the Greek Council and College Council. “The leadership roles prepared me more than I expected,” says the politics major. “And my education really helped prepare me for law school, just because I had so much more personal attention at Lake Forest and went to a small law school.”
 
Her senior thesis, which earned distinction, focused on civilian control of the military through the Supreme Court system. “Joanne always struck me as fair and open-minded about the thinkers we read in class, and she’s an excellent reader and thinker,” says Associate Professor of Politics Siobhan Moroney, who was Gordon’s advisor. “I suspect she’ll be a terrific lawyer, both in the military and when she retires from the military.”
  
Gordon attended the University of Richmond in Virginia’s law school, which allowed her to focus on military law and complete an ROTC program. After being admitted to the Illinois Bar in 2005, she completed a 13-week basic training course in Charlottesville, Virginia, before beginning her JAG Corps job in April 2006. “The cool thing about the JAG Corps is that we’re not out there on the front lines fighting, but we’re protecting the rights of the soldiers who are…and making sure they have something to come home to,” she says.
 
Gordon is also active duty and could one day find herself on the other side of the desk. “I’m actually excited by the idea,” she says. “All of my education, training, and experience has been focused on being a mission-ready soldier-lawyer. You deal with it by simply knowing that you’re not alone. You work for the greatest army in the world, with the greatest soldiers in the world.”
 
Considering her enthusiasm for the job, it comes as no surprise that she plans to stay in the army for a while. “I treat every day and every job like it’s going to be a career because that’s the best way to approach it. It’s tough to think that far down the line, but I truly love my job so it’s also tough to think of getting out,” she says.
 
Besides, in what other job could she go rappelling off 40-foot towers with her co-workers? “Not every lawyer can do that,” Gordon says. “Everyday I’m having experiences I never thought I could have.”

Cara Jepsen ’86 is a freelance writer based in Chicago.