Brian Hughes

Brian Hughes is Of Counsel in Best Best & Krieger LLP’s 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, Water District Law, Agency Operations, Public Management of Natural Resources and Parks, Infrastructure and Utilities, Public Recreation Agencies, General Land Use, and California Mining Law / Vested Rights.

Brian is highly dedicated to all of his clients, regardless of their size, scope, location, or 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.

Public Land Use Practice
Brian’s work pertaining to land use spans the gamut of land management and includes recreation, environmental mitigation, water rights, public resource management, wildlife restoration, park management, infrastructure and utility improvements or buildouts, 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 operational issues, public contracts, public debt financing, district expansions, employment issues, historical burial issues, and board meeting oversight. He is an active member of the public cemetery district associations in California and regularly speaks at their conferences.

Brown Act, Public Records Act, and Conflicts of Interest
In addition to regularly representing his and the firm’s clients at their public meetings, he frequently trains them on the Public Records Act, the Brown Act, conflicts of interest, and AB 1234 ethics compliance.

Prior to Best Best & Krieger LLP
A hydrogeologist by training, Brian comes from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of the Solicitor, where he was  an attorney-advisor with the Bureau of Reclamation for the California-Great Basin Region. He handled legal matters involving water rights, facility operations, maintenance and replacement, new construction projects(including dams and canal reconstruction), environmental impact statement reviews and FOIA requests.