About Richard Friedman

Richard H. Friedman built his reputation representing regular people and small businesses injured by large corporations and government entities, winning large verdicts in personal injury, defamation, insurance bad faith, and business torts. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Rick opened a one-lawyer office in Sitka, Alaska and focused on becoming a skilled trial lawyer. Over time, other lawyers sought his help, which led him to write five books for trial lawyers: Rules of the Road, Polarizing the Case, Becoming a Trial Lawyer, The Elements of Trial, and The Way of the Trial Lawyer.

He is a member and past president of the Inner Circle of Advocates, whose membership is limited to the 100 top plaintiff trial lawyers in the country, and is also a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers. In 2013, Rick was named Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Washington State Association for Justice, and in 2019 he received the same honor from the Southern California Trial Lawyers Conference. Five of the firm's verdicts have been ranked in the top ten verdicts in the United States in the years they were returned.

Proven verdicts and settlements

A King County jury awarded $275 million to thirteen Sky Valley Education Center students and families who suffered neurological injuries from PCB-contaminated light fixtures manufactured by Monsanto.

King County Superior Court, Seattle, WA · 2022Product LiabilityRead the full story →

A King County jury awarded three Monroe, Washington teachers $185 million after finding that PCBs manufactured by Monsanto leached from fluorescent light ballasts at their school and caused permanent neurological injuries.

King County Superior Court, Seattle, WA · 2021Product LiabilityRead the full story →

A Clark County jury awarded retired Air Force veteran Michael Washington and his wife Josephine $104 million after finding that propofol manufacturers Teva Parenteral Medicines and Baxter Healthcare knowingly supplied oversized anesthetic vials that clinics routinely reused, spreading hepatitis C to patients.

Clark County District Court, Las Vegas, NV · 2011Product LiabilityRead the full story →
$100 millionVerdictTop 20 in Washington · #8

A King County jury awarded $100 million to four plaintiffs who suffered neurological, hormonal, and cancer-related illnesses after years of exposure to PCBs from defective fluorescent light fixtures at a Monroe, Washington school.

King County Superior Court, Seattle, WA · 2025Product LiabilityRead the full story →
$72 millionVerdictTop 20 in Washington · #10

A King County jury awarded $72 million to two former Sky Valley Education Center students who developed chronic neurological injuries after years of PCB exposure from aging fluorescent light fixtures manufactured by Monsanto.

King County Superior Court, Seattle, WA · 2023Product LiabilityRead the full story →
$21.5 millionVerdict

A federal jury in Seattle awarded $21.5 million, including $16.5 million in punitive damages, to an Illinois businessman struck in the head by an automatic sliding-glass door aboard Holland America's M/S Amsterdam in 2011. In January 2016 the judge vacated the verdict and ordered a new trial after his former assistant said he had deleted emails sought in discovery. Nothing stood, and in June 2016 the parties stipulated to dismiss the case with prejudice on terms that were not made public.

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Seattle · 2015Product LiabilityRead the full story →
$8 millionVerdictTop 20 in Kentucky · #10

A Knott County jury found that Mine Safety Appliances Co. sold dust masks it knew were inadequate to protect underground coal miners, awarding coal miner James Couch $8 million after he developed black lung disease, in what was reported as the first coal-dust respirator case in the country to go to trial.

Knott Circuit Court, Kentucky · 2016Product LiabilityRead the full story →

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.

Practice areas

Education

Harvard Law School
J.D., 1979
Antioch College
Undergraduate, 1976

Bar admissions & credentials

State Bar of Washington

Other attorneys at Friedman Rubin

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Proven verdicts and settlements from other Seattle firms

Luvera Law Firm
Luvera Law Firm
$111 million · King County Verdict Holds Two Crane Companies to $111 Million for the South Lake Union Collapse
Stritmatter Kessler Koehler Moore
Stritmatter Kessler Koehler Moore
$123 Million Verdict for Aurora Bridge Duck Boat Crash, Largest Non-Punitive PI Verdict in Washington
Budge & Heipt, PLLC
Budge & Heipt, PLLC
$25 million · Federal Jury Awards $25 Million to Jail Detainee Over an Untreated Blood Clot That Cost Him His Leg
Schroeter Goldmark & Bender
Schroeter Goldmark & Bender
$16.67 million · King County's Largest Asbestos Verdict: $16.67 Million for Camas Paper Mill Worker's Family
Dearie Law Group, P.S.
Dearie Law Group, P.S.
$130 million · Pierce County Jury Awards $130 Million Over Death of 2-Year-Old the State and Her Daycare Failed to Protect

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.