Matthew Chandler Cordon

Matt Cordon serves as the director of legal research, associate director of the law library, and professor of law at Baylor Law School. He has earned several honors, including a national award for outstanding article from the American Association of Law Libraries. In 2004, Baylor University named him Outstanding Professor for Scholarship among all university tenure-track faculty members. He has additionally won young alumnus awards from both Central Methodist University (2006) and the College of Information at the University of North Texas (2009).

As a professor, he teaches courses in Legal Analysis, Research, and Communications (LARC) and Advanced Legal Research. During his career, he has also produced a significant quantity of publications. Along with Professor Brandon Quarles, he is the coauthor of Researching Texas Law (3d ed. 2012) and Specialized Topics in Texas Legal Research (2005), both published by William S. Hein & Co., Inc. Researching Texas Law serves as the principal research textbook in all of the research classes at Baylor. Cordon and Quarles have also coauthored book chapters on Texas practice materials as well as historical Texas legal information.

Cordon frequently contributes to a variety of other sources. His articles have appeared in such publications as Law Library Journal and Baylor Law Review. He has served as principal author of more than 1,500 essays for West's Encyclopedia of American Law, Gale Encyclopedia of Everyday Law, American Law Yearbook, Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States, Gale Encyclopedia of Senior Health, and the International Directory of Business Biographies. He also regularly serves on editorial review and advisory boards.

He has been active as a university faculty leader, serving as the chairman of the Faculty Senate in 2007-08, as the chairman of the University Committee on Committees, and as the member of more than a dozen campus-wide committees and work groups. He also serves as the chair of the Law School's Student Relations Committee.

Cordon played tennis and football at Central Methodist College (now University) in Fayette, Missouri and later became a sports writer and sports information director. He and his wife, Jennifer, still support the Dallas Cowboys, but these are trying times. He is active in martial arts, earning a black belt in taekwondo and a blue belt in Gracie (Brazilian) jiu jitsu. He has competed in several martial arts tournaments and won a gold medal in point sparring at the 2011 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) National Taekwondo Championships.