Rick Pope

Rick has spent more than 1,000 hours in front of juries in civil cases. He has won three verdicts of more than one million dollars each: for employment retaliation against a union whistle-blower, for insurance coverage to clean up groundwater pollution threatening Portland’s water supply, and for misappropriation of cellular telephone application trade secrets.

His first trial took him to the Oregon Supreme Court, where he obtained a reversal of a criminal conviction that the appellate court had affirmed without opinion. He has since briefed and/or argued 18 other appeals in the Oregon Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, the Ninth Circuit and the Utah Supreme Court. He has succeeded in obtaining reversals on appeal in close to two thirds of his decided cases.

Rick’s cases have included business torts, insurance coverage, contract disputes, unfair competition, intellectual property, personal injury, product liability, medical negligence and employment disputes. He has both brought and helped defend legal malpractice and attorney ethics cases. He also advises policyholders on all aspects of liability insurance coverage.

In 1997, Rick successfully tried and appealed a landmark Oregon case on allocation of insurance policies covering losses over many years from ongoing environmental property damage.

Rick’s ability to explain complex insurance concepts is illustrated in his article published in The Portland Business Journal, “Insurance Policy Ambiguities Can Yield Maximum Coverage.” He is co-author of the Actions against Insurers past two chapter supplements for the Oregon State Bar’s publication on insurance.

Rick works with clients to resolve conflict through a full range of the most appropriate means – negotiation, mediation, arbitration, dispositive motions, court or jury trials, or appellate judgments.

A former newspaper reporter, Rick excels at case investigation. He has also served on the Oregon’s Joint Bar-Press-Broadcasters Committee.

Rick has been able to indulge his interest in people problems and newspapers by writing a column,“Everyday Ethics,” for the Columbia River Reader, a lively little monthly helping readers discover and enjoy the good life in the Columbia River region in and around Longview, Washington.

Rick graduated with degrees in journalism (1974) and law (1979 magna cum laude and Order of the Coif) from the University of Illinois. He clerked for U.S. District Judge Harold Baker in Illinois, and came to Oregon with his family in 1980.

Rick and his wife Debbie have lived in the same house in Raleigh Park since 1982, raising three daughters – one an organic farmer, one a special education aide and graduate student and one a community organizer.

“We have tenacity. We go the distance. And when we say something, you can believe it.”

• Martindale Hubbell Rated AV Preeminent 5.0 of 5.0
• Immediate Past President, Owen M. Panner American Inn of Court, and Master Member
• Oregon Super Lawyer in business litigation since 2006
• Uniform Civil Jury Instruction Committee of the Oregon State Bar 2005-2008
• Oregon Joint Bar-Press-Broadcasters Committee (two terms)

• Oregon
• U.S. District Court for District of Oregon
• Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
• United States Supreme Court
• Has been admitted pro hac vice in Washington and Utah