Faculty

Christopher Gowen, J.D.
Assistant Professor of Law

Christopher J. Gowen brings more than two decades of litigation experience and sixteen years of law teaching to his role as Professor of Law at Wilmington University Farnan School of Law. He teaches Torts, Contracts, Professional Responsibility, Legal Writing, and Family Law, grounding doctrinal instruction in the practical realities of legal practice. 

Before joining the Farnan School of Law, Professor Gowen taught for sixteen years as an adjunct professor at American University Washington College of Law. Across 26 semesters, he taught Legal Ethics, Law Practice Management, and the Externship Program Seminar. He designed the institution’s Law Practice Management course and has taught it since 2016. His contributions earned him adjunct professor of the year recognition in 2012 and 2013. Since 2021, he has also taught Law Practice Management at the University of Baltimore School of Law in memory of his late colleague and friend, Professor Michael Specter. 

Professor Gowen’s practice spans civil negligence, professional malpractice, products liability, family law, and education law, including Title IX, student discipline, and premises liability matters. As Of Counsel at Decaro, Doran, Siciliano, Gallagher & DeBlasis LLP, and previously as founder and managing partner of Gowen Silva & Winograd PLLC, he has served as lead counsel in more than 100 trials across six states and the District of Columbia. His notable matters include United States v. Imran Awan, the Chevron v. Donziger litigation, and a District of Columbia case recognizing same-sex common-law marriage retroactively under Obergefell v. Hodges. He has also served as general counsel to Production Management One since 2009. 

Earlier in his career, Professor Gowen worked in national politics, including roles supporting President William Jefferson Clinton and serving as National Advance Lead for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. His scholarship has appeared in the Fordham Urban Law Journal and the Duke Forum for Law & Social Change, and he speaks on subjects including the collateral consequences of criminal convictions and artificial intelligence in legal practice and education. He holds a J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law and a B.S. in Business Administration from Villanova University.