The firm they don’t want to see on the other side.
Drake Hood, Eric Waxler, and Paul Vames spent their careers defending insurance companies, hospitals, and corporations before turning to the plaintiff’s side. They know what the defense is preparing, because they used to prepare it. That is a different kind of litigation advantage.
We know how the insurance defense is built. Now we take it apart.
We know what they keep private.
Drake Hood, Eric Waxler, and Paul Vames spent years defending insurers and the institutions they protect before turning to the plaintiff's side. They know how adjusters evaluate claims internally, how reserves are set, and which arguments collapse under cross-examination. That knowledge is not available in a law school curriculum.
Drake Hood goes to trial.
Nearly thirty years of complex litigation, the last twenty-five in medical malpractice defense. AV Preeminent. Super Lawyers. Best Lawyers in America. When carriers pull Drake's litigation history, they see a record that settles cases they would otherwise fight. The threat of trial changes what they offer.
The attorney you meet is the attorney on your case.
This firm does not route complex cases to junior associates. The attorney who takes your intake call is the attorney who reviews your file, prepares your strategy, and argues your position. You talk to the person whose name is on the brief.
From routine denials to catastrophic injury. We handle both.
Auto Accidents & Underinsured Claims
When insurance carriers minimize or deny coverage, we know exactly which levers to pull, because we used to manage those decisions from inside their claims departments.
Trucking & Commercial Vehicle
Commercial carriers deploy immediate response teams to accident scenes. We build cases that match their preparation: log books, weight records, inspection histories, and carrier liability.
Medical Malpractice
Surgical errors, misdiagnosis, and hospital negligence cases require expert testimony and long timelines. We have the specialist network and the infrastructure for both.
Wrongful Death
We pursue wrongful death claims against insurers, employers, and healthcare institutions. These cases demand experience with both liability theory and long-term damages calculation.
Workplace Injury (Third-Party)
When a third party caused the injury, a civil claim exists alongside workers' compensation. These dual-track cases are complex. We handle them and coordinate both tracks.
Premises Liability
Slip and fall, negligent security, unsafe conditions. Property owners carry insurance. We know how those policies are structured and what full coverage actually looks like.
Product Liability
Defective products, pharmaceutical injuries, manufacturing failures. These cases involve national defendants, expert engineering testimony, and discovery that takes years. We build for that timeline.
Insurance Bad Faith
When an insurer delays, underpays, or misrepresents coverage, a bad faith claim may exist alongside the underlying injury. We pursue both and hold carriers accountable.
How we build a case that holds up.
First 72 hours
Evidence disappears fast. Dash cam footage gets overwritten. Witnesses move on. We move immediately: crash reconstruction, surveillance preservation letters, independent scene documentation. Defense teams deploy before you hire anyone. So do we.
Full damages, not just the easy ones
Adjusters are trained to settle before your full damages are known. We retain life-care planners, vocational experts, and economic loss specialists. We document what your recovery actually costs, including what you will need ten years from now.
Discovery the other side hoped to avoid
Log books. Claim file notes. Maintenance records. Internal safety incident histories. We know what to ask for because we spent years deciding what not to volunteer. Forced disclosure changes settlement conversations.
Trial-ready from day one
Carriers price cases based on trial probability. When the attorneys across the table are former defense lawyers who spent careers preparing exactly these cases, that calculation changes. We build every case as if a jury will decide it. Carriers know it.
The cases that don’t settle themselves.
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Names and identifying details have been changed to protect client privacy.
The adjuster called before the funeral.
A widow in her early 60s was told by the insurance company, within 48 hours of the crash, that her husband was at fault and her claim was limited. She had no income of her own and was weeks from foreclosure. We obtained the crash reconstruction report, identified two witnesses the adjuster had never contacted, and documented what actually happened. Faced with the evidence, the carrier settled for $1.4 million before any lawsuit was filed.
A family of four. A falsified log book. Eighteen months of exposure.
A commercial truck struck a family vehicle on I-84. The carrier's response team arrived at the scene before the family had an attorney. We uncovered falsified weight records, a driver whose log book hadn't been audited in 18 months, and an inspection backlog that the carrier's safety officer had signed off on. The case settled for $2.3 million. The driver's certification was pulled.
Amazon said he was a contractor. We proved otherwise.
A delivery driver suffered a serious spinal injury when unsecured cargo shifted during a route. Amazon's defense was classification: independent contractor status, no workplace protections, limited liability. We built the employment relationship argument from route assignment records, Amazon-branded training documentation, and their own internal safety directives. They settled before a jury heard a word. The driver's medical costs and lost income were covered in full.
The hospital called it an accepted risk. Our experts called it negligence.
A woman in her late 50s came to us after a surgical procedure left her with permanent nerve damage affecting her mobility and ability to work. A major Northwest hospital system's legal team characterized the outcome as a known complication disclosed in the consent paperwork. We retained four independent medical experts and a life-care planning specialist who documented what full compensation actually required. The case resolved for a seven-figure settlement covering her long-term care.
Two tours overseas. They offered him $12,000.
A veteran returning from his second deployment was badly injured in a slip-and-fall at a national retailer. The store's attorneys filed a contributory negligence defense on day one and opened negotiations at $12,000. We documented every safety deficiency on that floor, retained a premises liability expert, obtained the maintenance and incident logs the store had not voluntarily produced, and pushed the case through mediation. He walked out with $400,000.
They defended the other side. Now they know exactly how to beat it.
Drake Hood
Partner
Medical Malpractice, Hospital Liability, Wrongful Death
Drake Hood spent nearly thirty years defending hospital systems, physicians, and corporations in the most complex injury litigation Oregon courts see. He switched sides in July 2023. What he brought with him is the institutional knowledge of how those defendants think, which records they hold back, and where they will settle versus where they want a trial. He knows the other side's defense because he spent a career building it.
Eric Waxler
Attorney
Auto & Motor Vehicle Litigation, Catastrophic Injury
Eric Waxler spent more than two decades as a partner at an insurance-defense firm, handling the motor vehicle and catastrophic injury cases carriers fight hardest. In the car accident arena he is every bit as formidable a litigator as Drake, with about the same depth of defense experience. He knows how insurers value these claims, how they build their defenses, and exactly where those defenses break, because he spent his career on the other side of them.
Paul Vames
Partner
Insurance Defense Strategy, Complex Liability, Personal Injury
Paul Vames spent thirteen years as an insurance defense attorney in Nevada and then Oregon before switching to the plaintiff's side in 2009. He built his career inside the claims system, the manuals, the audit cycles, which carriers fight and which ones fold, which arguments land at claims review and which get filed and ignored. That institutional knowledge drives litigation strategy on every case he handles now.
What our clients say.
“They were ready to go to trial when the carrier thought we would settle. Drake walked into mediation with a full trial notebook. They settled for three times the opening offer.”
+$1.1M above initial offer
“Paul returned my call the day after the accident and told me exactly what the adjuster was trying to do. He knew because he used to do it. I knew immediately I had the right firm.”
“I am a veteran. I chose this firm because they are veteran-owned and because Drake Hood's record is real. He is not a billboard lawyer. He goes to trial.”
★ 5.0 · 190 Google Reviews
We work with referring attorneys.
If you have a client with a personal injury or wrongful death claim outside your practice area, we want to hear from you. We handle the litigation. You keep the relationship.
emery@vameswang.com · (503) 669-3426
We take the cases other firms return.
Complex liability, catastrophic injury, long-timeline litigation against well-funded defendants. We have the infrastructure for cases that take years and the expert network to win them.
Your client stays your client.
We work with referring attorneys, not around them. You stay in the loop throughout. The relationship you built is the one you keep when the case is over.
Referral fees, handled cleanly.
We pay referral fees in compliance with Oregon and Washington Bar rules. Client consent in writing. No surprises, no awkward conversations, no confusion about who is responsible for what.
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