More About Mark O’Donnell

Mark advises clients in the use of traditional legal tools as part of an overall business or political strategy for problem solving.

 
He has been concerned about the unsustainable cost of public services in Oregon for the last 20 years. He is particularly concerned about the deterioration of Oregon’s public education system. As a 1961 graduate of Madison High School, he attributes his escape from the poverty of his youth to his mother’s emphasis on education.

 
In addition to his sponsorships and support of organizations working for social mobility, Mark O’Donnell was the 2013 recipient for the 14 Annual Samuel C. Wheeler De Paul Freedom Award. The De Paul Treatment Center, one of Portland’s oldest and most respected recovery centers, began giving the Freedom Award many years ago, to honor leaders in recovery whose lives in recovery reached others in significant ways and numbers. Past recipients have included legislators, professionals in recovery, business and civic leaders.

 
Mark O’Donnell was born into a family of alcoholics. He was raised in NW Portland by his mother Mary Jane Merkle O’Donnell who died with over 35 years of sobriety. He has experienced and understands the scars of abandonment, poverty, emptiness and anxiety, and continues to support organizations that seek to alleviate the adverse consequences of poverty, especially for children.

Mark has been practicing law in Oregon since 1968 and he is the owner of O’DONNELL LAW FIRM LLC. Mark can be reached at 503-274-1154 and [email protected].