Michael Belisle focuses his practice on medical malpractice and professional liability matters. He also has extensive experience in the areas of personal injury, real estate, products liability, construction defect and general insurance defense. Mike has successfully represented a variety of Oregon and Washington health care providers, physicians, real estate agencies, design professionals, product suppliers, contractors, individuals and insurance companies in a wide array of cases and in all phases of litigation, including mediation, arbitration and trial.

    Education

    • University of Oregon School of Law (J.D., 2005)
    • University of Oregon (B.A., 2002)

    Bar Admissions

    • Oregon
    • Washington

    Clerkships

    • Law clerk and bailiff for the Hon. Jack Mattison and Hon. Lyle C. Velure in the State of Oregon Circuit Court, 2nd Judicial District

    Professional Affiliations

    • DRI: The Voice of the Defense Bar
    • Oregon Association of Defense Counsel
    • Multnomah County Bar Association

    Awards & Honors

    • Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America®, 2025-2026
    • Best Lawyers in America® Professional Malpractice Law – Defendants, 2023–2024

Michael Belisle

Belisle Obtains Defense Verdict for Dentist in Case Alleging Failure to Diagnose Tongue Cancer

Mike Belisle (Partner-Portland, OR) obtained a complete defense verdict in a dental malpractice case involving the alleged failure to diagnose squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. After seven visits to our client’s dental clinic in 2018, including three with our dentist client, the plaintiff, a 38-year-old high school track coach and math teacher with a newborn baby, was diagnosed with Stage 3 tongue cancer in 2020. He then had half his tongue removed, received radiation therapy and was given a poor future prognosis with a low survival rate. The plaintiff claimed he had reported a non-healing lesion on his tongue at every dental visit in 2018, but that his complaints were brushed off, and he was never given a referral to an oral surgeon or for a biopsy. The plaintiff and his wife asserted claims for dental negligence, loss of chance and loss of consortium. After a three-week trial, they asked the jury to award them $25 million in damages. Following roughly five hours of deliberation over two days, the jury returned a unanimous defense verdict.  The jury found no negligence by our dentist client.  They did find negligence by a later hygienist who saw the lesion in 2019, but found no causation, so the plaintiffs’ were awarded $0.

Michael Belisle

Privacy Settings
Your Privacy Choices
We value your privacy. Under privacy laws in your jurisdiction, you have the right to control how your personal information is used, including the right to opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. You may also limit the use of your sensitive personal information.

Below, you can review and adjust your cookie and data sharing preferences. For more information about how we use your data, please see our Privacy Policy.

Your Rights and Choices

Opt Out of Sale or Sharing: You may opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information for advertising and analytics purposes by turning off Advertising & Targeting Cookies. We will honor your choice and will not sell or share your personal information for these purposes unless you enable these cookies again. Wilson Elser does not sell or share personal information in any other manner.

Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Information: If we collect sensitive personal information, you may limit its use to only what is necessary to provide requested services by adjusting your preferences here. Please contact privacy@wilsonelser.com with any questions.

Global Privacy Control: We honor browser-based opt-out signals, such as the Global Privacy Control (GPC). If we detect such a signal, your opt-out preference will be automatically applied.
These cookies are essential for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually set in response to actions made by you, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in, or filling in forms.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. If you do not allow these cookies, some or all of these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They may be set through our site by us or our analytics partners to understand your interests and deliver more relevant content to you. If you do not allow these cookies, we will not know when you have visited our site