THE LEGAL INTELLIGENCER PHILADELPHIA
Tuesday July 14, 1998 VOL 219 NO. 9

McHugh Makes Access to Courts Service Priorities of Presidency New Leader Emphasizes Trial Lawyer Contributions to General Public Good
by Michael A Riccardi
Of the Legal Staff

As a trial lawyer, scholar,teacher and one of the sharpest minds for proposing legislation, newly installed Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association President Gerald A. McHugh has not lacked for outlets
for exercising leadership among the city’s sizable contingent of trial lawyers.

But there is one activity that the lifelong West Philadelphia resident points to that he hopes will serve as an example to his colleagues.
That is the case he has taken on as part of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office to close down nuisance activities. In the case, McHugh took on a convenience story that allegedly became a locus
of drug activity. He developed arguments and wrote briefs to the court, while another lawyer presented the case.

“We won an injunction, and eventually negotiated a consent decree to stop the sale of alcohol, and secured an agreement to control the premises so as to keep out drug dealers,” he said.

The DA’s program requires volunteer attorneys to represent neighborhood coalitions in attacking nuisance locations in proceeding before the Liquor Control Board and zoning boards.

“The impact on quality of life in the neighborhood is dramatic when you prevail.”

Aside from benefitting the neighborhoods of the city, that type of engagement in the daily life of the city can only help trial lawyers advance the message that they are interested in the public good, as
well as the private interests of their clients, he said.

“We must re-emphasize that the law is not just a business but a profession,” McHugh said. “As professionals, we have to realize that we have an impact on society. And trial lawyers have a particular role to play in the mix.”

McHugh points to his involvement in community affairs as as an effective way for attorneys to reach out to neighbors.

“We have an obligation to be involved in the community,” he said, “ from policy issues to the pro bono field.”

Many city trial lawyers – Edward Chacker, Nancy Fullam, Diane and Martin Greitzer and James Mundy among them – have been pioneers for engaging the trial bar in public interest practice.

McHugh said he wants to continue that process. McHugh, a litigator at Litvin Blumberg Matusow & Young, has authors, along with his partner S. Gerald Litvin, a major two volume treatise on tort law and advocacy in the state, published by West.

In a wide- ranging interview with the Legal Intelligencer last week, McHugh scored frivolous litigation as putting fuel on the fire of self-styled tort “reformers” whom he says are seeking to narrow access to court.

“People who want to deny access to court use irresponsible lawyering as an excuse,” he said. Professional peer pressure, as well as the existing safeguards, ought to be enough to dissuade attorneys from misusing their power to file non-meritorious claims he said.

McHugh is also ready to use his skills as a legislative researcher to carefully examine any initiatives that would impact litigation practice in the state.

In the middle of a state legislative election, there is little chance that there will ber major legislation on the agenda until after Jan. 1, McHugh said. But he expecting a fight in the new year.

“We expect the Civil Justice Coalition, which is organized by corporate interests and medical societies to introduce an omnibus tort bill (in Harrisburg) that would affect the rights of all civil litigants, ” McHugh predicted, “ the role of the trial bar is to educate the legislature and public of the common law tradition – traditional doctrines such as joint and several liability – that have well - founded roots.”