Gordon Leslie Hawkins

Gordon Leslie Hawkins was a native Nevadan and a prominent Las Vegas attorney. Born in Winnemucca on January 30, 1924, he was the son of District Judge Leslie O. Hawkins, who served as a judge in Hawthorne for 17 years. Hawkins was a debater during his years at Humboldt County High School. He received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, attended the University of Idaho, and earned his law degree from the University of Michigan. He served in the Army from 1943 to 1946 during World War II and again from 1950 to 1951 during the Korean War, and he was decorated with a Purple Heart.

After joining the Nevada bar, Hawkins partnered with Howard Cannon - who later became a longtime United States senator from Nevada - to form the firm Hawkins & Cannon, before joining the Clark County district attorney's office. In 1953 he became a deputy district attorney under Roger D. Foley, who went on to serve as a U.S. District Court judge for Southern Nevada, and Hawkins served as chief deputy district attorney from 1955 to 1958. In 1959 he returned to the firm of Cannon & Hawkins.

Hawkins was widely known as the author of Question 6, a tax-slashing initiative petition that appeared on the Nevada ballots in 1978 and 1980, following on the heels of California's Proposition 13; the measure passed in 1978 but was defeated two years later. He served on the Board of Bar Examiners for four years and was a member of the American Bar Association, the Nevada Bar Association, and the Clark County Bar Association. He was also an active member of the local chapters of the Lions and Elks, as well as the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and the Phi Alpha Delta and Phi Alpha Theta organizations.