Richard W. Black

Richard W. Black was raised on a family farm in rural Oregon and was fortunate to be imbued with a tireless work ethic. In his own words, he relates the reason he endeavored to become a lawyer later in life:

Rooted in Hard Wark

Some of my earliest memories involve the never-ending chores of farm life: tending animals, planting and harvesting crops, mending buildings and fences, wrenching on farm machinery, cutting firewood for heat, hunting, fishing, and being tasked with things at a very young age that would surely panic parents today.

At age five, I was operating a Caterpillar D4 dozer while my grandfather set chokers on fence posts to pull old fencing and remove trees along a creek. Vividly, I remember having to put both hands on the pony motor's fuel tank (the pony motor is the small gas engine that started the big caterpillar diesel) to put all my weight on the clutch pedal to disengage it; then while balancing on the clutch pedal, free one hand to shift gears or operate the cable drum. Because my grandfather had lost a leg to amputation and my father worked at a local mill, at age nine or ten I was tasked with strategically setting and lighting dynamite along that same creekbed to increase water flow and deepen watering holes (obviously this was pre-DEQ).

At about the same age, a standard chore was to use a chain saw to fell, limb, and buck logs into pads, so I could then split the pads into firewood to fuel our home's sole source of heat. Spring and summer days were consumed with cutting, raking, baling, and putting up hay in the barns for the next winter; or planting and tending the massive family garden, berry fields, and orchards from which the next year's foodstuffs were harvested and canned. Any “free time” was spent employed at neighbor farms, picking beans, berries, and nuts for nominal wages; or collecting bags of fir tree cones to be sold to local foresters.

At age 16, I finally got “regular” hourly jobs that continued through the summer after graduation from High School. As did most teenage males of the '60s and early '70s muscle car era, I owned, built, and raced several high-performance cars during my high school years, which engendered an enduring appreciation and love of all things automotive.

Inspired by My Grandparents

For background, my grandparents' had little formal education. My grandfather, born in 1906 completed the sixth grade, and my grandmother, born in 1909 completed the 9th. Beyond that, both were self-educated, so much so that you would never win a game of scrabble with my grandmother because her knowledge of the English language was remarkable.

The thing that set my path toward becoming a lawyer occurred while sitting in my maternal grandparents' 1963 Rambler American in our driveway. I was seven years old and had spent the day with them as I often did. They were dropping me off at my house when my grandmother turned to me and said, "You should become a lawyer." It was a bit out of the blue, but as I pressed them as to why I should become a lawyer, they offered that they both wanted me to achieve things they were never able to because of their lack of formal education. Neither of them had completed high school, neither of my parents completed college, and that encouragement kindled a desire to achieve the goal they had set before me. I have gone on to complete undergraduate and graduate degrees, and ultimately fulfilled my grandparents' wishes of becoming a lawyer. However, it was a long journey with a handful of other careers along the way.

My Early Career

After graduation from high school, a stint as a professional musician, and a year at a local university, the U.S. Navy seemed like a good option. The U.S. was in the middle of a recession, and the Vietnam War was winding down, so I joined the Navy. But after a very successful six-plus years with the U.S. Naval Submarine Service, it became clear that being a Squid (a Navy Submariner) would not be a permanent career choice. So, having completed my bachelor's degree requirements in the Navy, it was time to fulfill a near life-long ambition of becoming a lawyer.

While waiting on law school application results, a local car dealer offered a job that guaranteed a decent salary and a new car to drive. Even though I loved cars, sales seem both intimidating and unappealing, but the opportunity to be around the newest and fastest automobiles certainly did; so, I accepted the job offer expecting to do a tenure of 12 to 18 months before I could get into law school. A few months later, a State Deputy Attorney General (DAG) came into my office wanting to buy a new car, and while completing the credit application I discovered that the DAG's income was about one-quarter of my own. It was at that point that a career in the car business appeared to be a decidedly better option than another three years in school and a 75% reduction in income.

Decades of Dealership Experience

Over the next 30 years, I held virtually every position in a dealership from detailer to dealer principal; from management consultant to wholesaler to corporate trainer. Dealerships included publicly-owned mega-groups, privately held large groups, and smaller private locations. Each was an opportunity to learn and hone new skills as each store had unique challenges of franchisee, staffing, marketing, business development, cash management, inventory control, and public service. Collaterally, during those years, a number of opportunities presented themselves to launch and operate service businesses that complemented the auto industry; including an insurance agency, an aftermarket accessory business, a detail shop, and a promotional marketing business. Each ancillary business was a response to an unfulfilled market need.

Furthering My Education

In 2011, while working full-time managing a multi-franchise dealership, I completed a second bachelor's degree summa cum laude and thereafter left the industry to devote full time to graduate school, earning a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. MBA in hand, and bored with so little to do (tongue in cheek), I took a position with a credit union in 2013, managing its Indirect Lending department. Using my recently completed education and decades of experience with the auto industry, I was successful to increase loan originations by almost 1000 percent, making it Oregon's dominant auto lender. At the same time, I was enrolled full-time at Purdue University's Concord Law School in Los Angeles, ultimately graduating with academic honors, and passing the California bar examination when only 26.7% of takers were successful.

Ready to Represent You

Because of my decades of experience in the automotive, insurance, and lending industries, I find myself uniquely qualified to understand and therefore address legal issues that arise. I have been involved in many legal issues as a client, and I found it discouraging and expensive that I had to first make the attorney understand the business, then understand how the arising issue impacted the business before they could act. Having decades of experience in those industries allows me to put that experience to better use for you, the client. As our motto says "no translation necessary."

If you have a legal or operational issue arising out of the automotive, insurance, or lending industries, or are seeking personal representation for estate planning or personal injury, I hope you will give me a call and discuss how my experience can quickly and efficiently help resolve it.