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Larry Gibson was born in Washington, D.C. on March 22, 1942. His mother was a domestic worker and cook and his father worked as a janitor. He earned his high school diploma from Baltimore City College High School in 1960, where he was the first African American class president, a member of the track team and drama club.
From 1960 to 1964, Gibson attended Howard University, where he organized his first political campaign for a female classmate who was running for Homecoming Queen. While at Howard, Gibson was student body president, chairperson of D.C. Students for Civil Rights and pledged Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. In 1967, he earned his law degree from Columbia University in New York. Between 1963 and 1970, Gibson worked as an associate for Brown, Allen, Dorsey and Josey. From 1969 to 1975, Gibson served on the Baltimore City School Board. In 1970, he became a partner at the firm he had been working at, Josey, Gibson, Allen and Mitchell, and a year later he handled the first of his many high profile cases, representing the Black Panther party in a murder case and winning. In 1972, Gibson became the first African American law professor at the University of Virginia, a post he held until 1974. Gibson then accepted a position at the University of Maryland law school as an associate professor. In 1977, he was named a full professor at Maryland, where he continues to teach civil procedure, evidence, election law and race and the law. Gibson has also continued to be active in politics throughout his career. From 1977 to 1978, he served as associate deputy attorney general in the Carter Administration. From 1978 to 1979, Gibson served as Director of the National Economic Crimes Project. In 1987, Gibson helped mastermind Kurt Schmoke's campaign for mayor of Baltimore. He would serve as Schmoke's campaign manger for his 1991 and 1995 mayoral campaigns as well. In 2001, he served as campaign consultant and political advisor for the Ravalomanana for President of Madagascar campaign. Gibson is currently working on an oral history project about Maryland's African American lawyers and writing a book on Thurgood Marshall's first four years of practicing law from 1933 to 1937. He is of counsel at Shapiro, Sher, Guinot and Sandler where he represents the World Umpires Association which includes all professional baseball umpires. 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 continues to serve as a Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law, where he teaches Evidence, Civil Procedure, Racial Discrimination and the Law, and Election Law. 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." 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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