Vern McCray Law Firm P.L.L.C.
413 NE Everett St, Camas, WA 98607
 

Vern H. McCray – Attorney

BA in education from The Evergreen State College in 1986

Juris Doctorate from Lewis and Clark Law School in 1991

Mr. McCray was born & raised in Clark County. He started his legal career in 1989 under the mentorship of Clark County Superior Court Judge Edwin L. Poyfair. He became an Assistant City Attorney of Washougal and prosecuted all types of misdemeanors for three years while practicing family law & personal injury as an associate attorney of Poyfair & English.

When Judge Poyfair took the bench in 1992, Mr. McCray began working for Boyd & Gaffney (now Boyd Gaffney Sowards & Treosti PLLC), where his 2nd great mentor, James Boyd, threw him into the deep end with a felony public defense contract for Clark County & Skamania County. As an associate, Mr. McCray continued general civil law practice (family law, estate planning, personal injury, etc.), becoming a Partner at Boyd & Gaffney one year later.

Through the public defense contract, Mr. McCray gained his 3rd great mentor in criminal felonies, the Honorable Judge Robert Lewis. Judge Lewis & Mr. McCray each took approximately 125 felony cases each year between Clark County & Skamania and split the Juvenile criminal and Dependency contracts. Mr. McCray kept his felony public defense contract for over ten years before entering private criminal defense.

On Mr. McCray’s 1st felony case to go to trial, he obtained a Not Guilty verdict on Aggravated Murder & Murder 1. He is one of the first in his generation of attorneys in the area to achieve Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity on a Murder 1 case. Mr. McCray successfully defeated three current presiding Superior Court Judges in obtaining Acquittals at jury trials, each prosecuted- 2 were Class A/B felonies.

At this point in his career, Mr. McCray has defended over 1,500 criminal Felony cases and has collected a toppling stack of “Not Guilty” verdicts. Mr. McCray is licensed to practice in the Western District of Washington and has successfully defended federal drug and Social Security fraud cases argued cases at the Court of Appeals and successfully defended a case that went all the way up to the United States Supreme Court.

Mr. McCray’s working relationships with opposing counsel have inspired resolution in the most convoluted circumstances. In the event trial is not the best course- Mr. McCray has a track record of obtaining dismissals, civil compromises, and reduced charges on criminal cases and structuring settlements in family law cases, wrongful death lawsuits, and large estates.

In 2012, Mr. McCray branched away from Boyd, Gaffney, McCray, Sowards, & Treosti & took over the firm’s Camas location as his practice. Today, Mr. McCray’s decision-making is relied on by other judges, who call upon him to act as Pro-Tem Judge in their stead, as well as a Special Master of Evidence. For the past decade, Mr. McCray has limited his own practice to criminal defense and family law, two areas of the law he finds most rewarding.

When he is not in the office, Mr. McCray is either serving as a Pro-tem Judge in Skamania Superior Court or farming on 100 acres of his Goldendale property with his wife and their many, many animals.

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