Gordon A. Madsen

Who is Gordon A. Madsen?

Gordon A. Madsen is a former state legislator and assistant attorney general in Utah. He is currently working as a co-editor of the business and legal papers in the Joseph Smith Papers Project. Madsen is married to Carol Cornwall Madsen.

Madsen has B.S. and J.D. degrees from the University of Utah. Early in his career he served as a district attorney and then assistant attorney general in Utah. He served in the latter position from 1959 to 1964. Since 1964 he has been a lawyer in private practice.

From 1969 to 1971 Madsen served as a member of the Utah House of Representatives.

Madsen in 1990 and 2004 published articles in BYU Studies about trials involving Joseph Smith. Madsen has also worked as an adjunct faculty member at Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School.

Madsen is a Latter-day Saint. In a 1996 presentation to the Mormon History Association he presented evidence that he said demonstrated that William Law's accusations of fraud against Joseph Smith, Jr. were false.

Gordon and Carol Madsen are the parents of six children.