Brian Hughes

Brian Hughes is of counsel in Best Best & Krieger LLP’s (BBK) Special Districts practice group. Brian’s practice involves advocating for, counseling, assisting, and above all providing thorough legal guidance to special districts, public agencies, and other municipalities throughout California. He specializes in general counsel practice, public cemetery districts, public real estate transactions, public management of natural resources and parks, and California mining law and vested rights.

 Brian is deeply committed to serving every client with the same level of care and attention, regardless of size, scope, location, or legal issue. As general counsel, Brian serves to represent, protect, and improve each district through educated and cost-effective legal advice, an involved operational understanding, consistent communications, empathy, and a love of working for public service. 

General Counsel Practice
Brian's general counsel practice focuses on assistance in daily operational issues, policy writing, public contracting and grant oversight, public debt financing, public real estate matters, employment issues, CPRA, Brown Act, ethics training, conflicts of interests, and board meeting oversight.

Public Land Use / Real Estate Practice
Brian’s work pertaining to land use includes all aspects of land management and public real estate sales and purchases, and includes cemeteries, recreation, wildlife restoration, park management, infrastructure and utility improvements, historical preservation, emergency services, mining oil and gas development, public–private partnerships, and historical mining or reoperations of mining or logging.

Public Cemetery District Practice
Brian is honored to represent, as general counsel, a diverse number of public cemetery districts across California and assists them in all of their needs, including daily operations, abandoned cemetery oversight, new cemetery or expansions, and complete district overhauls. He is an active member of the public cemetery district associations in California and regularly speaks at their conferences.

 A hydrogeologist by training, Brian joined BBK after serving with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of the Solicitor. He was an attorney-advisor with the Bureau of Reclamation for the California-Great Basin Region. He handled legal matters involving federal real estate matters, recreation, law enforcement, wildfires, facility operations and maintenance, grants, and new construction projects.