Matthew D. Kaplan

Matthew D. Kaplan — Personal Injury Attorney

History, Matthew Kaplan will tell you, is generally the story of people fighting for equality and freedom. That conviction did not come from a textbook. It came from watching the people closest to him navigate systems that were not built in their favor, yet find a way through anyway.

His mother was one of the only women working at an insurance company, constantly navigating discrimination and harassment from her co-workers, yet through hard work and thick skin, she eventually was recognized for her excellence. His stepfather survived the Holocaust, endured a concentration camp, immigrated to America, and then served in the Korean War. With very little formal education, he started his own business and built something lasting. Matthew describes both as unbelievable stories of perseverance that keep everything in perspective.

That perspective is the foundation of this law firm. The clients who come to Kaplan Law are people in despair. They may have lost someone they love, or they have been severely injured and are asking the hardest questions imaginable: How do I provide for my family if I can’t work? How do I carry on when I’ve lost my loved one to something that happened in an instant— because of someone else? Those are not abstract legal problems. They are human ones. And Matthew’s firm exists to meet them at that level.

THE MISSION

Restorative Justice — Not Just a Settlement

The goal of Kaplan Law is not simply to resolve cases. It is to use the power of the law to bring some measure of restorative justice to each client. That distinction matters in how the work is done.

What Matthew has observed over nearly three decades of practice is a transformation. Clients arrive overwhelmed, uncertain, afraid, and unsure of how to tell their story. The work of building a case requires something different: preparing clients to articulate what happened to them, to understand the legal framework that applies to their situation, and to stand behind the claim that is made on their behalf. In that process, something shifts. They become empowered. They become, in Matthew’s words, heroes. And when the case concludes — whatever the outcome — they can say they are proud of how they were represented.

That is the standard Kaplan Law holds itself to. Not just results, but the experience of being truly heard and effectively advocated for throughout the entire process.

CAREER PATH

The Path to Personal Injury Law

Matthew graduated cum laude from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1993 with a degree in History — a discipline that trains you to understand how power operates, how institutions fail people, and how the arc of events is shaped by human choices. He earned his law degree from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles in 1996.

He began his legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable Sidney Galton of the Multnomah County Circuit Court, where he observed firsthand how the law operates when it works, and when it fails for ordinary people. From there, he moved to the Southern Oregon Public Defenders’ office, where he tried criminal cases and learned the hard disciplines of courtroom advocacy: how to cross-examine witnesses, how to argue to a jury, and how to build a case under pressure with limited resources.

That criminal defense experience is one of the most important advantages Matthew brings to every case. He was already battle-tested in the courtroom long before he handled his first civil matter. When he moved into personal injury practice at the firm of Squires & Lopez, he brought that trial experience with him.

He founded Kaplan Law, LLC in 2003. In the more than two decades since, he has never represented an insurance company, a corporation, or any defendant in a personal injury case. Only the people who were harmed or the families who lost someone. That is not a marketing position. It is how the firm was built from the first day, and it has never changed.

CREDENTIALS

Recognition and Professional Standing