William A. Gaylord


Bill Gaylord has practiced law in Portland since being admitted to the Oregon State Bar in 1973.  He attended the engineering school at Cornell University, and Portland State University, and graduated with a BS degree from Oregon State University in 1969.  He received his Juris Doctorate from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College in 1973.  He is nationally recognized for his work in product litigation, especially for his breakthrough victories against makers of tobacco products, all-terrain vehicles, and nail guns and staple guns, and is listed in "The Best Lawyers in America" in the areas of products liability litigation, medical malpractice law, and personal injury litigation.  

In 1995, Bill was honored as the OTLA Distinguished Trial Lawyer of the Year and was a co-recipient of the OTLA Public Justice Award in 1999. Also in 1999, he was a finalist for the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice National Trial Lawyer of the Year, in recognition of his landmark verdict against Philip Morris. He is a past-president of the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association (OTLA), and remains active in leadership with both the local (OTLA) and national (ATLA) plaintiff’s bar associations.
 
He is former chairperson of the Oregon Uniform Trial Court Rules Committee and the Oregon Council on Court Procedures.  He has also served on the Multnomah Bar Association Committee on Professionalism and the Multnomah County Arbitration Commission.

When he is not working, Bill finds time for his life-long pursuit of downhill skiing, basketball, folk guitar and banjo, and his perpetually new endeavor to learn golf.