Powers, Tom

Tom Powers' practice focuses on products liability litigation involving medical devices, pharmaceutical drugs, toxic exposures such as asbestos, and product design defects ranging from seat-belt systems to faulty tools and equipment. He has worked on PPA, PPH, and HRT cases, as well as vaccine injury claims in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Tom also handles general litigation and medical negligence claims involving serious injuries and wrongful death. For the past several years, Tom has focused on cases involving "pain pumps," medical devices introduced to the orthopedic surgery market without proper testing or warnings, leading to crippling shoulder injuries in many patients. Tom has tried "pain pump" cases to verdict, and was on the trial team that won a $5,450,000 verdict in Portland, OR in 2010. He has also helped more than 100 injured pain pump clients across the country recover substantial settlements from the pump manufacturers in compensation for their disabling injuries.

In addition to working from the firm's office in the Portland area, Tom established an eastern Oregon office for the law firm when he moved to Joseph, Oregon in mid-2011. Based in Wallowa County, Tom is uniquely able to provide legal services to rural Oregonians often lacking access to legal counsel in the eastern portion of the state.

Tom is professionally active, having served as co-chair of the Legislative Committee of the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association and on the Executive Committee of the Oregon State Bar's Products Liability Section. He is a member of the American Association for Justice, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, and the Multnomah Bar Association.

Several of Tom's articles have appeared in bar and professional and publications. He regularly makes presentations at CLE seminars and professional association meetings.

Tom earned his J.D. from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College in 1998. He is admitted to practice in the state courts of Oregon and Washington, the U.S. District Court for Oregon, and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C. Because of the firm's participation in national litigation, Tom has also appeared in cases in California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

Before joining our firm in early 2000, Tom was an associate at a defense firm where his practice focused primarily on insurance coverage and product liability defense. Tom became a partner in WLO&P in December 2004.

Prior to law school, Tom served for nearly ten years as a campaign organizer, staff director and lobbyist for the Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG's) in Florida and California. In that capacity he worked on a wide range of environmental protection and consumer justice issues at the state and national level through initiative campaigns, grassroots organization building, and legislative advocacy. He continues to perform pro bono legal work for the PIRG's and other public interest organizations.

Tom is an avid bicycle racer and commuter, and he is active in local community and civic organizations.