
so here's one:
John Gear practices as John Gear Law Office LLC. John obtained his B.S. from the University of Wisconsin in 1984, a Masters of Engineering Management from Washington State University in 1993, and his J.D. (magna cum laude) from Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 2004. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1978 and left the Navy as a Lieutenant in 1989, having attended the University of Wisconsin on an NROTC scholarship before serving on a submarine based in Pearl Harbor.
After leaving the Navy and then working five years at Westinghouse Hanford Company in Richland, Washington, John became an operations management consultant, applying his expertise in high-reliability power plant operations to more prosaic enterprises and organizations such as businesses and nonprofits.
At age 41, John accepted a full scholarship to law school. Upon graduation he was admitted to practice in Michigan and became a research attorney for the Michigan Court of Appeals and then a regulatory attorney for the Michigan Public Service Commission. He mistimed the move to Oregon and had to take the bar exam all over again in Oregon in 2007. Three years later, he found his law calling, opening his own practice as “A values-based Oregon law practice serving consumers, elders, employees, and nonprofits.”
Since then, John founded the Oregon State Bar’s Nonprofit Organizations Law Section, served as chair of the Education Committee for the National Association of Consumer Advocates, and he has written or co-written two chapters in OSB attorney practice manuals, one on Consumer Law for Active Duty Military and Veterans and one on “Warranties” in Consumer Law in Oregon.
John lives in Salem with his wife, the Rev. Mary Mangione Gear, and together they work to provide Simon and Lucy, two completely unspoiled cats, with the food and heated blankets they deserve.