John A. DiLorenzo Jr. | Our Team | Davis Wright Tremaine (2024)

John DiLorenzo's practice emphasizes change. Even if the law does not support a client's position, there may be good policy reasons to support change to the law. John's practice designs and implements strategies to change the law by lobbying legislative and executive branch officials, initiating administrative rulemaking, or litigating to clarify what the law means. John has authored and been a primary advocate for major legislation in the areas of state and local taxation, tort reform, natural resources, and economic development and environmental insurance recovery. John also assists clients in campaign finance, government ethics, initiatives and referendums, appellate cases, and a variety of government-related litigation matters. In November 2019, John was lead counsel on a trial against the State of Oregon resulting in the largest jury verdict in state history.

Practice Highlights

• Obtained the largest jury verdict in state history against the State of Oregon ($1,065,919,400.00) on behalf of 160 local governments. County of Linn v. State of Oregon (2019)
• Organized the Oregon Litigation Reform Coalition, which successfully lobbied a package of bills providing for reciprocity in attorney fee awards, prohibiting application of RICO in most business disputes unless a prior criminal conviction was obtained, changing standards for punitive damages awards, allocating 60 percent of those awards to the state, and abolishing the doctrine of joint and several liability and replacing it with the doctrine of reallocation for most tort actions
• Authored and lobbied for numerous sections of "Measure 50" and its implementing legislation, reducing and limiting property taxes statewide
• Authored and successfully lobbied "Right to Farm" legislation protecting agriculture from many nuisance and trespass suits as development moves closer to farming communities
• Negotiated and successfully advocated legislation preempting local governments from imposing "conversion penalties" on HUD Section 8 landlords who convert to "free market" at completion of Section 8 programs
• Authored and successfully lobbied Oregon’s Environmental Cleanup Assistance Act, requiring Oregon law to apply to insurance policies on environmental claims and expanding definition of "suit" to include voluntary responses to environmental regulatory bodies
• Authored and successfully lobbied for legislation providing transition rules for owners of historic properties that experience property tax assessment "step ups" upon program renewal
• Authored and successfully lobbied for legislation exempting property used in egg production from property tax
• Authored and successfully lobbied for legislation providing immunity from suit for antifreeze manufacturers who add "bittering agents" to antifreeze products for safety
• Authored and successfully lobbied for legislation permitting both in-state and out-of-state residents "like-kind exchange" tax treatment for Oregon income tax purposes
• Authored and successfully lobbied for 2003 Transition Amendments to the Environmental Cleanup Assistance Act, permitting "all sums" recovery against non-settling insurers remaining as defendants in pending environmental insurance recovery cases
• Authored and successfully lobbied for legislation permitting certain aerial-display fireworks companies to maintain their operations in exclusive farm use zones
• Authored and successfully lobbied for legislation relieving developers of certain licensing requirements and permitting "downstream" suits to recover damages from subcontractors notwithstanding license status of developer
• Lobbied numerous amendments for a variety of business clients
• Successfully lobbied for legislation exempting religious schools from state oversight relating to degrees offered
• Successfully lobbied for a variety of appropriations
• Successfully lobbied for and drafted major portions of HB 3369 (2009) which paved the way for water development projects in the Umatilla Basin
• Successfully lobbied for and drafted statewide GMO preemption law (2013) and successfully defended the statute at trial and before Court of Appeals