I have been a trial lawyer since 1984. My career began at a large law firm in downtown Portland which specialized in insurance defense litigation. In other words, the firm was hired by insurance companies to defend lawsuits filed against people or organizations who purchased insurance from those companies. I handled a wide variety of cases early in my career, but soon chose to specialize in defending physicians medical malpractice cases and defending police officers in civil rights cases.

In 1992 I decided to leave the large law firm and, along with five friends, start a small firm specializing in the defense of physicians, police officers and other professionals. By 2000, that “small” firm had grown to over forty lawyers and I had defended literally hundreds of lawsuits in essentially every county in Oregon and SW Washington.

In 2000 Dave Miller and I decided to start another small law firm, Miller & Wagner, LLP. This time we promised ourselves two things: First, we would stay small. Second, we would stop working for medical malpractice insurance companies and start working for patients. After 17 years we’ve managed to keep both promises and couldn’t be happier.

In 2001 we moved our law offices into a large house in NW Portland, built in the 1890’s for a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient. It had seen a lot of hard use over the years and needed substantial repairs. My hobbies have always included woodworking, home remodeling and gardening. So when not behind my desk I’m often found demolishing lath & plaster, pounding nails, re-wiring outlets or sprucing up the yard. It’s still very much a work in progress, but we’ve come a long way.

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