TAMPA - Wilkes & McHugh inspires strong opinions.

Nursing home owners call the Tampa law firm greedy and hellbent on putting them out of business. Clients - and trial lawyer peers - call it a heaven-sent bunch that has scared nursing homes into providing better care.

But there's no disputing its courtroom successes.

On Monday, the National Law Journal will include Wilkes & McHugh on its second annual "Plaintiffs' Hot List," a group of 20 U.S. law firms the publication says did "exemplary work" during the past year. Only one other Florida firm, Haggard Parks Haggard & Bologna of Coral Gables, made the list.

"I'd like to think we've made a substantial difference in the way nursing homes operate," partner Jim Wilkes said Friday.

It's not just the $64-million in jury verdicts that Wilkes & McHugh's 60-lawyer staff have won on behalf of mostly elderly clients during the last 12 months, or the millions more they've won in confidential settlements.

Wilkes & McHugh was selected in part, the Journal says, because it is considered a pioneer in its field.

When the law firm opened in Tampa in 1985, few lawyers were willing to go toe-to-toe with deep-pocketed nursing home chains. One reason: Elderly, retired clients don't suffer as much economic loss as young ones with a bright professional future, so jury awards tended to be small.

Wilkes & McHugh focused instead on so-called punitive and pain-and-suffering awards, learning along the way to help juries see nursing home owners as heartless profiteers. It also discovered favorable statutes others had ignored.

To some extent, Wilkes & McHugh and law firms like it have become victims of their own success. Huge jury awards have led to a backlash against lawyers and to legislation that would cap both jury awards and attorneys' fees.

On Friday, Wilkes said a combination of tort reform efforts and nursing-home improvements in Florida helped push the firm into new locales, such as Arkansas, Virginia and Tennessee.

Its victories are legion.

In 2003, Wilkes won $26.4-million on behalf of an Arkansas client after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the verdict to stand. In 2000, a Pinellas County jury ordered a 300-location nursing home chain to pay the estate of St. Petersburg resident Charlie McCorkle $20-million.

Wilkes and partner Tim McHugh have learned to enjoy their accumulated wealth and power over the years.

Wilkes has earned publicity recently as a friend and lawyer for St. Petersburg boxer Winky Wright. His firm has the capacity to take on pro bono cases, such as its representation of Gov. Jeb Bush in the Terry Schiavo case.

Wilkes and McHugh have also kept an unusually firm hand on their law firm's controls. Though the typical law firm lets seasoned associates become partners, giving them a financial stake in the firm's future and a say in its administration, Wilkes and McHugh remain their firm's only partners.

"That's another secret of our success," said Wilkes, who said the firm compensated with higher salaries. "We don't have very long board meetings. We call every shot."

Wilkes, whom industry representatives have labeled "the Antichrist" among other pejoratives, is confident nursing homes are safer because of his firm's work.

"In every large verdict we've had, the conduct that we prosecuted would have supported jail time for the nursing home operators," he said.

"The argument that our prosecution of cases makes nursing homes more expensive would be sort of like saying racketeering laws make it hard for the mob to operate."

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