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Greg Oldham
I am a native of Tennessee. I will tell you that regularly. Born in August, 1952 in Nashville, Tennessee.
I went to a little boarding school, Thomas Jefferson School, in St. Louis, Missouri. Graduated June, 1970,
third in my class. THEN I tell folks I was the bottom third of my class.
College was another little school that was then called Southwestern at Memphis, though it has since changed
its name to Rhodes College. I now refer to its sports teams as "The Rhodents," but somehow that never caught
on at the college. It doesn't even solicit money from me anymore.
After college I taught for a time at my high school in St. Louis; then I came to the west coast and started a
bookstore in Bellingham, Washington. It failed, leaving me with an interest in the lease that facilitated that
failure, so I applied to a variety of law schools. Lewis & Clark Law School, also known as Northwestern School
of Law, took me on. Once I figured out how to study they couldn't stop me, and I eventually clawed my way into
the top half of the class. Graduated May, 1986. Admitted to the Oregon Bar September, 1986; US District Court,
District of Oregon, May 1987; Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, 2002. Member of the Oregon State Bar and the
Multnomah Bar Association.
I started at law a little bit late - I was 34 when I entered practice. Two years later, in 1988, I hung out my
shingle, mainly because no one wanted to hire me.
Funny thing is, I never REALLY intended to practice law. When I went to law school I figured there are so many
different things you can do with a law degree that it was smarter to do that than take the history doctorate
that appeared to be my other reasonable choice, given my personality, predilections, and questionable tastes.
At that time all the professorships were full of folks who seemed oh, maybe 45 or so, not all that old. I was
astonished when I was about 45 to discover that they had all retired and now all the professors were my age.
Who woulda thought?
Twenty-some-odd years on, I can't imagine liking anything except what I do, which is a general practice of law
that focuses on helping families and family businesses go where they need to go. My pleasure in the practice
is exceeded only by my pleasure in my family – my wife and our four sons --, our home and our menagerie, which
has included dogs, cats, snakes, fish and even two goats. You should be able to detect that pleasure when you
talk to me.
There is a movement of lawyers who call themselves a variety of things, "healing lawyers," "holistic lawyers,"
things like that. They aim to make people feel better about themselves and their lives, to use law to assist
rather than to batter. I subscribe to that idea, without using a lot of whole-earth mumbo-jumbo; but I have to
say that the value of courts in our society is so very high because with a careful, thoughtful judge or jury you
have a forum where your view can be heard and you can get on with your life after obtaining a decision. Once upon
a time I advocated avoiding courts, but I now find cases where I advocate getting in front of a judge or jury
just as fast as we can, so you can get on with your life and get this little bit of heartache behind you.
At the same time I'm sensitive to costs, not just in dollars and cents but also in stress. I try to help you
analyze the procedures, the costs, the likely ultimate benefits and the dangers. We spend a lot of time in my
office discussing end results, ultimate goals, likely outcomes, and worst/best scenarios. This is to assist you
in making the analysis that permits you to decide how to go forward most economically and with the greatest
degree of satisfaction in your life.
Client (and other) testimonials:
| (Unknown:) |
"You go, girl!" |
| (Ben, age 3:) |
"Good job, daddy!" (Note: Ben is now a teenager; he was probably not referring to Greg's legal skills, but you take your compliments where you find them) |
| (After court:) |
"Thank you, Greg." |
| (Note attached to a check:) |
"Thank you, Mr. Oldham." |
| (A landlord:) |
"Mr. Oldham, I think you are a real sonofab***h!" (From an opponent who had just beaten me. I guess he was mad that he had to hire a lawyer to do that; anyway, he hired me the next time he needed help.) |
| (Auto dealer, disgruntled:) |
"Oh God, I've heard that a**hole's name before." |
| (Another attorney:) |
"Please tell me you're not calling me to hurt one of my clients." |
OK, OK, the last 3 were garnered over a long period of years, and aren't current anymore. Come to think of it, neither are the rest. And in this world I can't identify client references for you, so you'll just have to trust me.
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"Helping families and family businesses go where they need to go"
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