Biographical Summary

Since entering private practice in 1981, Gerald A. McHugh, Jr. has focused his practice on complex civil litigation, including aviation, product liability, workplace accidents, and medical malpractice.

Mr. McHugh is a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, which limits its membership to 500 of the top trial attorneys from the United States, and a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, which restricts membership to the most highly regarded trial attorneys in the country.

He is listed in the directory Best Lawyers in America. In the first ever statewide “Superlawyers” poll of the profession, conducted in 2004, he was rated by fellow attorneys as one of the top ten attorneys in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Report, in its annual analysis of the 100 most influential people in public affairs, consistently ranks him in the top fifty.

His recent cases of note include involvement in the Lockerbie air disaster, the I-95 police pursuit case, and serving as co-counsel for the estate of David Schultz, the Olympic wrestler murdered by John duPont. His verdicts and settlements have received national attention in publications such as the American Bar Association Journal and the National Law Journal. Mr. McHugh has won awards for clients in seven or eight figures more than thirty times.

Following graduation, he served as law clerk to the Honorable Edmund B. Spaeth of the Pennsylvania Superior Court, and the Honorable Alfred L. Luongo of the United States District Court.

For the first 23 years of his career he practiced with the Litvin firm in Philadelphia, acquiring his courtroom skills from legendary trial lawyer S. Gerald Litvin.

McHugh is a recognized authority on Pennsylvania tort law. In 1995, he drafted amendments to Pennsylvania's Wrongful Death Act that were unanimously adopted by the General Assembly.

Before that, he co-authored legislation extending the statute of limitations to protect the rights of children. He helped define the standard for medical malpractice claims in Pennsylvania in 1996, and was the chief negotiator for patient interests when the law was amended in 2002. On six separate occasions the governor of Pennsylvania has presented him with a pen used to sign legislation he participated in drafting. He is the co-author of Pennsylvania Torts: Law and Advocacy, a critically acclaimed legal text which fills two volumes of the Pennsylvania Practice series. He has been elected to the American Law Institute, a national organization of scholars, judges, and attorneys, dedicated to legal reform.

His cases have established new precedents in the courts, including the right of a patient in a clinical trial to hold a hospital responsible for failing to inform the patient of risks. He also established a precedent that state agencies can be held liable for damages for wrongful death.

Mr. McHugh was President of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association during 1998-1999. He served on the Board of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, has been Chairman of its Legislative Policy Committee, and has coordinated its statewide task forces on product liability and medical malpractice. He has also chaired a hearing committee of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania's Disciplinary Board, and served on the Governor’s Nominating Commission for Judicial Appointments.

He served three terms as Chairman of the Pennsylvania Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts Program (IOLTA), by appointment of the Supreme Court, generating funds to support civil legal services for the poor. He also served as President of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of the bar, and is now on the Board of Pennsylvania Legal Services, the largest source of funding for the indigent in the state. He is a co-chair of Community Legal Services’ Equal Justice Fund, supporting the delivery of legal services to the indigent in Philadelphia, and one of the founders of Hospitality House of Philadelphia, a residential program for ex-offenders. He has been active in neighborhood affairs, leading anti-drug efforts and working to establish the Firehouse Farmers Market, an economic development project.

Mr. McHugh regularly publishes in the fields of tort law and civil litigation, having contributed to the Pennsylvania Bar Quarterly, the Philadelphia Lawyer, the Barrister, and the Pennsylvania Law Weekly. He is frequently asked to lecture before professional groups and judges, including the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Philadelphia Bar Association, and the State Conference of Trial Judges.

Among many awards he has received for professional excellence and community service are the Fidelity Award of the Philadelphia Bar Association, the Justice Michael A. Musmanno Award, the Leadership Award from Pennsylvania Legal Services, the President's Award of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, the Distinguished Child Advocate Award from the Support Center for Child Advocates, the Rosenberg Memorial Award from the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, the Equal Justice Award from Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, and the Young Lawyers Community Service Award of the Philadelphia Bar Association.

McHugh attended St. Joseph’s Prep, Philadelphia’s Jesuit high school, and then received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, where he was named a College Scholar, and elected valedictorian of his class. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School with honors, where he served as an editor of the Law Review, and received the Benjamin Jones Award for Public Interest Service.

A lifelong resident of West Philadelphia, he continues to live in the neighborhood where he was born and raised, where he and his wife Maureen raised four children.