Neuberger goes from nervous to top trial lawyer

While most people fear public speaking, Robert Neuberger relishes the chance to talk before an audience — especially if the listeners are members of a jury.

But that doesn’t mean he’s not nervous.

“I would be a liar if I told you I wasn’t scared,” he said.

At his first-ever trial in Pendleton, he said “I knew I was going to pass out.”

But now Neuberger, 57, has nearly 30 years behind him as a trial lawyer.

He’s been named the Distinguished Trial Lawyer of 2010 by the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association.

Neuberger received the award Aug. 6 during a convention at Sunriver.

Neuberger grew up in Baker City, the son of furniture store owners Gert and Erna Neuberger. He graduated from Baker High School in 1972.

“By the time I passed the bar, I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” he said of his decision to become a trial lawyer.

Sept. 12 will mark 30 years in this profession. He’s lived in Portland since 1977.

“My whole legal career has been spent representing people — that’s been my honor,” he said. “I represent ordinary people. Sometimes they’re well-to-do, sometimes they’re working folks, sometimes they’re people without anything to their name.”

Most of his work is for clients who have been in an accident.

“Helping somebody whose life has been turned upside down — maybe forever,” he said.

He said less than 1 percent of all civil cases go to trial.

Does that disappoint him?

“Absolutely! That’s the fun part,” he said. “From a lawyer’s standpoint, it’s like rehearsing all these months and then not being able to have the big performance. It’s not like Perry Mason or Boston Legal, but trials are still interesting.

“But we’re here, of course, to represent our clients.”

And to, in effect, make the world a little bit safer, especially when machinery is proven to have a safety flaw.

“Nobody likes lawyers until they need one, right?” he said. “Be that as it may, we have a set of rules, laws — if conduct is beyond that it’s a crime, or at least you’re responsible. One thing lawyers like myself have done is make society a safer place. We’re the people who say we’re here to make sure the rules apply to everybody.”

In the OTLA publication “Sidebar,” Neuberger credits his mentors Multnomah County Judge William Dale and lawyer Burl Green.

“They taught him that no case and no client was insignificant and that being a vigorous advocate never had to interfere with relationships,” it reads.

“It’s been fun,” he said. “It’s the people — all the people. That’s what I like about what I do.”

He only takes one client at a time.

“I’m a little like my mom and dad that way,” he said.

He’ll always consider Baker his home.

“I always talk about that I’m from Baker, and my family was on Main Street for 130 years,” he said. “My friends have always teased me that you take the boy out of Baker, but you can’t take Baker out of the boy. You never lose that sense of place.”