"About Us" - Current President

Thomas H. Tongue, the current President, is the 61st President of the College.  An Oregon lawyer since 1968, Tom was first hired and then mentored by William H. Morrison, a President of the College 1972-73.  Tom is the fourth-generation Thomas H. Tongue to practice law in Oregon. 

Tom has practiced continuously with the same Portland, Oregon law firm since 1968.  It is now known as Dunn Carney Allen Higgins & Tongue.  He became a partner in 1972.  He has been the firm’s Managing Partner and the Chair of its Litigation Practice Group.  His practice centers around complex litigation and health law.  A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers since 1993, Tom was State Chair for the State of Oregon from 2000-02, a Regent of the College from 2003-07 and an officer of the College since 2008.  A graduate of the University of Oregon and Wisconsin Law School, Tom served in an Army Jag Reserve Unit from 1968-74.  He has been active in the county and state bar of Oregon.  At age 32 he was elected President of the Multnomah County Bar, the youngest person ever so elected.  A member of the International Association of Defense Counsel since 1983, Tom was President of the Oregon Association of Defense Counsel in 1998.  He has tried to verdict well over 100 cases in federal and Oregon state courts in diverse areas such as admiralty, antitrust, breach of fiduciary duty, condemnation, contract, employment, environmental, insurance bad faith, insurance coverage, legal malpractice, medical malpractice, patent infringement, products liability, real estate, securities, trusts and estates, will contests, and wrongful death.  He has argued cases before the Oregon Court of Appeals, the Oregon Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Tom was selected by his peers to be included in The Best Lawyers in America for Commercial Litigation, Bet the Company Litigation, Securities Litigation and Trusts and Estates Litigation (2012 Lawyer of the Year).  In 2004-2011, Tom was recognized as a top litigator in Oregon in the Chambers and Partners USA Survey of America’s Leading Business Lawyers.  According to the survey, “Peers acknowledge that Thomas Tongue is ‘one of the finest: he has all the right attributes you want in a lawyer.’”  In November 2006 the first Oregon Super Lawyer poll selected Tom as an Oregon Super Lawyer.  He was featured in the cover story, “The Lawyerly Lineage of Thomas H. Tongue,” in the 2010 Oregon Super Lawyers publication.

Both the Multnomah County Bar Association and the Oregon State Bar Litigation section have awarded Tom their prestigious Professionalism Awards in recognition of his style of practice as an example to others.  In 2011, Tom received the Judge Learned Hand Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oregon Area Jewish Committee, awarded to recipients who embody that which Judge Hand represented:  the rights of the individual and the importance of democratic values in an orderly society.

Tom enjoys fly fishing, golf and time at the family cabin in Central Oregon with his wife of 40 years, Andrea.  Tom and Andrea are extremely proud of their two children.  Son Tom is the 5th Thomas Tongue to practice law in Oregon, and daughter Kathryn Watts is Associate Dean for Research and Development and an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Washington School of Law.  The two Tongue and two Watts grandchildren are the apples of their grandparents’ eyes.

Tom and Andrea look forward to their year traveling to College events and enjoying the fellowship of the College.