“I Find People” says Investigative Attorney Charles Eric Gordon

January 10th, 2011. By BrendaC

Lawyers Giving Back looks at a side of lawyers you don’t hear too much about—the side that gives back…pays it forward..and shares the love. We’ve found quite a number of attorneys who log non-billable hours helping others—simply because they believe it’s the right thing to do. Their stories are inspiring, and hey, who knew lawyers were so…good? If you’ve got a story to share about an attorney who’s doing the right thing, let us know—we’d love to let others know, too. Today, we’re talking with attorney Charles Gordon…

Attorney Charles-Eric Gordon: The Lawyer Lawyers Turn To to Find People

If you’ve ever existed, investigative attorney Charles Gordon can find you. Not only that, he teaches other lawyers how to find you, too!

He’s an expert in the art of ‘Skip Tracing’—which is, rather like it sounds, the business of tracking down witnesses, debtors or former spouses who “skip” out on obligations—or, they could be missing heirs to estates, or they just need to be found for some other legal reason.

Attorney Charles Eric Gordon

 

Gordon’s a Brooklyn Law School-educated attorney, but as he’ll tell you, “I haven’t litigated a case as the attorney of record in a long, long time. When I go to court it is as an expert witness. I’m an investigative attorney.”

The computer is a mighty sword in the search for those individuals who are missing pieces to legal puzzles. At his free workshops for the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyer Project he teaches people how to use Google or ancestry.com and search licensed databases to locate people.

“It is something I really enjoy doing,” says Gordon. “I get some insight—especially when the lawyers bring up questions from their own practices and I talk about how I would handle the issue.”

“I tell them the computer is important,” he adds, “but the internet isn’t everything.”

Gordon’s a bit of a charmer, too and in his business, that’s a definite plus. “Lawyers who want to learn how to find missing witnesses or heirs to estates have to “use the schmooze”. It’s a Yiddish expression,” says Gordon. “Basically, what I mean is get out there and talk to people, don’t just sit at the computer.”

“Is there a dry cleaner or a bodega in their old neighborhood where someone might remember what happened to them,” says Gordon. “Or maybe someone there might remember somebody who would know where they went.”

Gordon loves his job. And sometimes, when a lawyer comes to him struggling to find someone critical to a case, if it’s a worthy one, Gordon will hop on the case pro bono and get the work done.

In the early 1970s, as Gordon was graduating from university with an English degree (yes, there was another degree before this one) his career options were limited. “I started out working a debt collector. I became very good at finding debtors and setting up car repos. And I loved the chase,” says Gordon.

“You could say I’ve carved a little niche for myself,” says Gordon, sitting in his sunny office on 7^th Avenue in New York. He’s got a collection of phone books going back to the early 1900s—one of the artful tools in his people-finding kit. “Sometimes people will say something like, my uncle lived on a street with an animal name, but I can’t remember it.”

“I flip through the phone book and find Zebra Lane or Dromedary Street,” says Gordon. “I know where to start looking.”

As Gordon said, it’s an art.

Charles Gordon of Charles-Eric Gordon, Esq. specializes as investigative counsel serving the legal profession and real estate industries by locating missing heirs, legatees, beneficiaries, witnesses, debtors and defendant; especially those absentees missing for many years or about whom little information is known. Gordon also conducts investigations involving rent stabilization and rent control fraud by tenants and conduct asset investigations of judgment debtors. He serves as a consultant to private investigation firms and corporation counsel, and teaches continuing legal education courses on tracing missing persons and conducting landlord-tenant investigations.

Tags: Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyer Project, Charles Eric Gordon, Charles Gordon, Lawyers Giving Back

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