Derrick Louie

Bennett Hartman, LLP.

I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon to a family of immigrants. My mother and father were from Hong Kong and came to America in the 1960s. As a kid, I watched my mom juggle two jobs while my dad worked long hours in tech manufacturing. When I became old enough to work during high school, I started out bussing tables at a Chinese restaurant.

In college, I held a work study position as a file clerk in the university’s student records office. In the summertime, I worked a multitude of jobs from making sandwiches in a deli, to painting apartments, and working graveyard shifts at a local newspaper printing and distribution center. All of these experiences have helped me develop a perspective and insight into the rigors of the labor most of my clients are required to perform on a daily basis. As a result, I fully understand why what some may perceive as a negligible injury/condition can in fact be very disabling for people with strenuous jobs.

While in law school at The University of Oregon, I focused my education on business law with a concentration on corporate formation, mergers and acquisitions, and forensic accounting. After school, I clerked for two years in a personal injury law firm. There, I gained experience in civil litigation, mostly working on motor vehicle accidents and medical malpractice cases. I was involved in civil pleadings practice, trial work, and appellate briefing for the Oregon Court of Appeals.

From there, I went on to process workers’ compensation claims for The Hartford Insurance Group. After mastering claims processing, I became a claimants’ attorney with an emphasis on ensuring the appropriate administration of disability benefits to my clients. I then had a short stint as a workers’ compensation defense attorney at a large law firm that represents many local claim administrators and insurance companies.

I soon realized, however, that my true passion was actually in vigorously representing injured workers who were involved in this complicated insurance system and I have now returned to serving individuals. I am happiest when helping my clients navigate their claims to obtain the maximum benefits available under Oregon’s workers’ compensation laws. Having been on both sides of the dispute, I have a unique ability to analyze a claim from multiple perspectives which allows me to determine the optimal strategy for my clients. As a former adjuster and defense attorney, I understand what the employer’s/insurance company’s objectives and strategies are. Then, drawing on my experience and knowledge, I do my best to forecast and explain each client’s options from the outset to create a legal strategy custom-tailored to meet their specific needs.