Helping clients sleep at night

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When Barbara S. Hughes walked into her first Trusts and Estates class, she thought it was going to be “the most boring class in law school.”

To her great surprise, she was immediately captivated with discussions of public benefits and the newly-passed Marital Property Act. She realized that “helping families” within that area was her next career calling.

These days, Hughes is considered one of the architects of elder law in Wisconsin, having devoted thousands of hours to the creation, leadership and growth of the State Bar’s Elder Law Section as well as to committees dedicated to modernizing the state’s guardianship laws, and creating the statewide WisPACT pooled special-needs trust.

She’s successfully litigated cases that ultimately resulted in published opinions. But those aren’t her career highlights.

Rather, Hughes mentions a couple with an adult daughter with physical disabilities and mental illness. She received a small amount of Social Security Disability and Medicare and with Hughes’ help, she was qualified for Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid as well.

“Now she has a much bigger safety net,” said Hughes. The parents have died, but she remains in touch with the daughter.

“The parents’ biggest worry was what would happen to her when they were gone. That’s the biggest worry every parent of a special-needs child has,” she said. “So I see what I’m doing as helping my clients sleep at night.”

Hughes started law school after more than two decades in a variety of fields and raising her family.

“I thought about law school for the 20 years before I did it. Every five years or so, I’d especially get the itch,” she recalls.

Hughes is active in several elder and special-needs law organizations. Among them, she was invited to join the Special Needs Alliance, a national nonprofit of distinguished elder law attorneys who concentrate in special-needs law. From that, she’s become very thankful for Wisconsin’s progressive approach.

“Our laws here are among the best in the country,” she said. “That’s not to say there aren’t other progressive states as well. But it’s an honor to work in a state where the law is so forward-thinking.”

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