McHugh Law, PLLC

Focus and practice areas

McHugh Law works one side of the employment relationship. The firm represents employees in disputes with their employers, and it takes those cases in both Washington and Oregon. The office is in Vancouver, Washington, which sits on the Oregon border, so the two-state reach follows the geography.

The subject matter is fairly well defined on the firm's own pages. Sexual harassment claims. Discrimination based on race, national origin, immigration status, disability, gender identity and sexual orientation. Wrongful termination. Retaliation and whistleblower matters. Family and pregnancy leave issues.

There's also a contract side to the work. The firm handles restrictive covenants, meaning non-competes and non-solicitation agreements, along with breach of employment contract claims. Those cases often surface when someone leaves a job and the old employer pushes back, so they pair naturally with the termination work.

Transgender and LGBTQ+ rights

The site calls out transgender rights and LGBTQ+ rights as named practice areas, separate from the general discrimination heading. In my opinion that's worth pointing out, because plenty of employment firms fold this work into a single discrimination page and leave it there. Naming it gives a prospective client a clearer read on whether the firm handles their situation.

How the team is built

Colin McHugh leads the firm and is the attorney the site profiles. He began practicing roughly a decade ago and has concentrated on employment cases since 2014. Paralegal Taylor Yerroeck is the other team member listed on the about page.

That's a small operation, and the listing reads accordingly. A client working with McHugh Law is working with McHugh himself on the substance of the case. For employment plaintiffs, who often want direct contact with the lawyer handling their claim, that structure has an obvious appeal.

Courts and credentials

The admissions list is unusually long for a firm of this size. McHugh is admitted in Washington state courts and Oregon state courts. He's also admitted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Beyond the trial courts, he's admitted to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and to the United States Supreme Court. Federal district court admission matters in employment work, since Title VII and ADA claims frequently land in federal court. The appellate admissions mean a case that goes up on appeal can stay with the same lawyer.

Education

McHugh holds a BS in Criminal Justice from the University of Arizona and a Juris Doctor from Gonzaga School of Law. He also earned an LL.M. in Latin American and International Law from the University of Texas. That last degree is an uncommon addition to an employment practice, and it may connect to the immigration status discrimination work the firm names.

What the record shows

McHugh Law appears on the Super Lawyers Washington Rising Stars list for 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Four consecutive years on a peer-nominated list carries more weight with me than a single-year mention, since it suggests a sustained view among other Washington lawyers who work in the same courts.

The site does not publish case results or settlement figures, so as a reviewer I'll say the verifiable record here is the credentials and the listings rather than outcomes. Readers looking for numbers will need to raise that in an initial conversation.

The employer-side background

One detail on the about page is worth sitting with. McHugh represented employers earlier in his career, and he now takes only individual plaintiffs. He states that shift plainly on the site.

That history has practical value for a plaintiff. A lawyer who has sat on the defense side has seen how companies evaluate claims internally, how outside counsel gets brought in, and what makes a file settle. In my opinion, that experience is a real asset in employment litigation, where the two sides read the same facts through very different filters.

It also explains the shape of the current practice. The 2014 date marks when the employment focus took hold, and everything the site lists since then sits inside that lane.

Who this listing will suit

The clearest match is a Washington or Oregon employee with a live dispute at work. Someone fired after reporting misconduct. Someone facing harassment. Someone handed a non-compete that limits where they can work next.

Cross-border cases deserve a mention on their own. Workers who live in Vancouver and commute to Portland, or the reverse, can face a genuine question about which state's law applies to their claim. Dual admission in Washington and Oregon lets the firm take that question on directly.

What a reader gets from this listing is a defined practice area, a named attorney with documented admissions and degrees, a named paralegal, and four years of Rising Stars recognition. The firm's employment focus dates to 2014.