Mark Pihl for Judge • Yamhill County

Mark is seeking election as Yamhill County Circuit Court Judge because our community needs additional judges with both civil and criminal experience that provides a broad background, perspective and understanding of complex and everyday legal issues. Mark said, “It would be an honor to serve the citizens of Yamhill County.

Mark has been a trial attorney for 28 years and is passionate about the law.

He believes there are three parts to our adversarial justice system. For it to work properly – to be able to provide balance, fair and compassionate justice – all of the players (prosecution, defense and judge) are important in achieving this goal. First, the DA charges and prosecutes crime, aspiring for justice. Second, the defense attorney, with the same goal of justice, defends the accused while protecting citizens’ constitutional rights, and presenting to the DA or court and jury ‘the rest of the story’. Third, the judge’s role is to be the experienced, independent an neutral arbiter of the law during trial. Later the judge sentences within the sentencing guidelines hearing the advocacy of the DA and the defense in applying a just, fair, balanced and compassionate sentence.

During his career, Mark began as a law clerk for a civil business litigation firm and continued as an attorney before working as a prosecutor in Washington County and the City of Lake Oswego for 10 years, as a criminal defense attorney for about 10 years and Mark has worked as a civil trial attorney for over 7 years representing corporations in complex businesses litigation, businesses in insurance defense, employment law, landlord-tenant law, general business law and individuals in personal and product injury cases.

Since 2009 Mark has worked almost exclusively in Yamhill County as a criminal defense and trial attorney representing individual clients accused of serious offenses and business in employment, landlord-tenant and real estate litigation.

As a prosecutor, Mark was responsible for several hundreds of jury and court trials that included A Felonies, significant drug cases, adult and child sex abuse, violent assaults and complex theft cases, and prosecution of Juvenile delinquency crimes and civil prosecution for DHS. While serving as a Deputy DA in Washington County, Mark was a member of the Washington County Multi-Disciplinary Team and the Child Fatality Review Team.

He has also had experience working as corporate counsel for a private nationwide trucking corporation with 1200 employees. Mark assisted in responsibility for litigation & litigation management; hiring & managing outside counsel; cargo, personal injury and property cases, employment law & bankruptcy. Earlier in his career, Mark worked as interim corporate counsel for a publicly traded international video distributor where he also managed outside counsel, managed and plaintiffed lawsuits in state and federal courts in the USA and Canada.

Mark has also served as a Yamhill County Circuit Court Judge Pro Temp since 2011; serving in night court, hearing traffic and small claims trials. This experience has enhanced his ability to impartially listen to and understand both sides of cases.

In this pool of experience, Mark has tried several hundreds of trials, zealously working to provide his clients with balanced, fair and compassionate results. While working in these many different areas of litigation, Mark has developed a comprehensive understanding of our justice system as well as our court and trial procedures.