CENTER CITY'S WEEKLY PRESS
June 23, 2004

Jerry McHugh: Neighborhood Roots - Statewide Prominence
by Jo-Ann Verrier
Vice Dean, University of Pennsylvania Law School

By the time he reached the seventh grade at deSales School at 47th & Springfield, Jerry McHugh knew that he wanted to be a lawyer. It was the late 1960s, with the public debate over civil rights and Vietnam filling the airwaves. He was fascinated by the ability of strong advocates to shape events just through the power of their ideas.

He pursued that goal, and after commuting to St. Joseph’s University from his family’s Springfield Avenue home, he chose the University of Pennsylvania Law School for his legal training. After a great career at Penn Law, he began practice as a trial lawyer with a prominent
center city firm. After twenty-three years of practicing the craft, there can be no doubt he was meant to be a lawyer.

And that has been confirmed time and time again by the recognition of his peers -- most recently in the first Superlawyers survey of the profession in Pennsylvania. In the 33,000 ballots distributed, Gerald Austin McHugh was ranked by other attorneys as one of the top
ten lawyers in the state. Results of the process, conducted by the Journal of Law and Politics, were published in the June issue of Philadelphia Magazine. And, while achieving this professional success, Jerry continues to live in the same neighborhood and parish
where he was born and raised, now with four children of his own.

McHugh's family roots in West Philadelphia are deep. On his mother’s side, his children represent the fifth generation of the family to live continuously in the neighborhood; on his father’s side, they are the fourth. His father Gerald McHugh, Sr., ran a neighborhood real estate office from 48th and Baltimore for many years, was involved in the first efforts at neighborhood renewal, and served as an early president of Cedar Park Neighbors. His great-grandfather on his mother’s side actually built the family’s home at 50th and Willows, and his grandmother could recount hiking through farmers’ fields on the way to grade school.

Although McHugh describes himself as surprised by the recognition, there was ample evidence that the “local guy” had made his mark. He is listed in the directory Best Lawyers in America. He was elected to the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, whose membership
is limited to 500 of the top litigators in the United States. He is also a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the oldest and most respected professional organization in the trial bar. McHugh’s practice focuses upon the representation of victims of serious injury, and a number of his verdicts and settlements have received national attention.

Although he has been in private practice, the issues of social justice that first attracted him to law remain a prominent part of his professional life. He founded a half-way house for exoffenders,
which he continues to chair. He supports the work of legal services programs, often teaming up with his Penn Law classmate and neighbor, Catherine C. Carr, who serves as the Executive Director of Philadelphia’s well-regarded Community Legal Services. He
was president of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation, the charitable affiliate of the Bar Association, served on the Public Interest Advisory Board at Penn Law, and for seven years chaired a statewide program sponsored by the Supreme Court that supports the work of public interest lawyers and law school clinics, allowing Penn Law students to serve the legal needs of members of our community.

McHugh has also had an impact on shaping the direction of the law. He authored a two-volume treatise on trial advocacy and tort law, leading the Pennsylvania Report to name him as one of the fifty most influential people in the state.

Along the way, he has not forgotten the importance of the community his family has always called home. He helped establish the community garden at 49th & Florence. He served for several years as an officer of the Firehouse Farmers Market, and negotiated with the City for the first minstation there.In the early 90s, he made use of his lawyering skills, joining in a nuisance action to halt drug dealing on Baltimore Avenue. Meanwhile, his wife, Maureen Tate, whom he met while in high school, followed in his father’s footsteps almost four decades later as President of Cedar Park Neighbors.

If you ask Jerry McHugh about the unusual nature of his story as a guy who has so closely tended his roots, his answer is that “Philadelphia is a city known not just for the ability of its lawyers, but also for the importance of its neighborhoods,” and that “roots in a community give a lawyer a unique perspective on how to make sense of people and of events.” He’s quick to add that Philadelphia is one of the few remaining places where people can pursue -- and achieve! - - their dreams “without ever moving further than three blocks from where they were born!”