Member Bio
A partner at Bodyfelt Mount LLP in Portland, Oregon, Vicki M. Smith loves the Pacific Northwest. She grew up in a small town in eastern Washington and spent a summer during college working in Montana at her favorite place, Glacier National Park. She enjoys training for and running marathons, rock climbing, and paddling hidden lakes and water trails. Her dog does not enjoy their kayak adventures as much as Vicki and her husband do, but the entire family loves to explore national parks with their 17’ Casita travel trailer. The family spent their three-month sabbatical in 2014 driving the Alcan Highway and exploring Alaska.
Vicki became an attorney because she enjoys the challenges and strategies in problem-solving and is a trial lawyer to her bones. An introduction to trial practice class in her undergraduate school was the lynch pin to sending her to law school. Her love of trial strategy carried through law school mock trial competitions, the mock trial student board, and through her clerkship at the Oregon Department of Justice’s Trial Division for two years. The natural progression after law school was to clerk for a trial judge, which she did for the Honorable Lyle C. Velure in state court.
Vicki joined Bodyfelt Mount LLP in 2002, and became a partner in 2009. Her practice includes general civil litigation and insurance coverage. She is currently working on cases involving insurance and surety bond coverage, professional liability claims, warranty claims, construction defects, and asbestos-related injuries. She practices in all courts in both Oregon and Washington. She has tried many cases across the state of Oregon, in both state and federal courts. One of Vicki’s most recent trials was a construction defect case in which she obtained a defense verdict for her general contractor client. She has also tried cases involving claims of contractual indemnity, product liability, commercial breach of contract, and many personal injury actions. Vicki arbitrated numerous cases in both binding and non-binding arbitrations, including co-chairing a five-week construction defect arbitration.
Longstanding legal directory Martindale-Hubbell assigned Vicki an AV® Peer Review Rating -- the highest rating an attorney can obtain for legal ability and ethical standards. The Best Lawyers in America lists Vicki in the category of insurance litigation.
Vicki is admitted to practice in Oregon; Washington; the U.S. District Court, District of Oregon; the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Washington; and, the U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington.
Vicki earned her J.D. from Willamette University College of Law in 2001. She obtained her B.A. in international affairs and government from Eastern Washington University in 1998.
Vicki proudly served as President of the Oregon Association of Defense Counsel in 2018. She has long been active in OADC, having served three years as an officer, (2016-2018), three years as a board member (2013-2015), and six years working up the leadership ladder in the New Lawyers Practice Group. At the national level, Vicki is heavily involved in the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel, serving on its Admission and Local Meeting Project Committees, and is the current Chair of the Commercial Litigation Section and Vice Chair of the Professional Women’s Forum.
Vicki also regularly presents at professional and continuing education seminars. She presented on arbitration disputes at the FDCC's 2019 Winter Meeting. On a commercial litigation panel at the FDCC’s 2018 Annual Meeting, she addressed arbitrability issues affecting claims by third parties. She moderated a panel discussion on closing arguments at the 2017 FDCC Winter Meeting, and she spoke on motor vehicle dealer surety bonds at the 2016 Defense Research Institute Annual Meeting. Vicki was part of a panel discussing motions against pleadings at a 2013 CLE seminar co-sponsored by OADC and the Jackson County Bar Association. She spoke about how to be a successful second-chair trial attorney at the 2012 OADC Annual Convention, and she presented twice at the Oregon Professional Liability Fund’s Learning the Ropes CLE for newly admitted lawyers (2006 and 2007). She also authors articles for FDCC and DRI publications, and regularly contributes substantive content to Bodyfelt Mount’s website and newsletter.
Vicki supports a number of community organizations, and she really enjoys mentoring. For six years, she partnered with middle or high school students to read and analyze books together, as part of the Multnomah Bar Association's Imprint Program. Through the nonprofit organization Girls on the Run, Vicki served as a running buddy to multiple 8- to 10-year-old girls. Vicki mentored law students at Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College for several years and was the recipient of the 2006-2007 Andrea Swanner Redding Outstanding Mentor Award. She also mentors lawyers under the Oregon State Bar’s New Lawyer Mentoring Program. She frequently volunteers as a judge for high school moot court competitions, as well.