Allyson Hughes

Allyson Hughes has been Board Certified in Marital and Family Law by The Florida Bar since 1998 — a credential held by fewer than 300 attorneys in Florida, less than one percent of the Bar. The Florida Bar awards Board Certification only after rigorous examination, peer review, and continuous study in the field. In practice, this means that when a case turns on a business valuation, a retirement account division, or a contested parenting dispute, she has handled that situation many times before in the same courtrooms.

She is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), one of approximately 100 Florida attorneys selected as a Fellow. AAML Fellowship is not a membership that can be applied for in the conventional sense. Applicants must already be Board Certified, pass a national written examination, pass an oral examination administered by Florida AAML examiners, and be vouched for by sitting judges and peers in the practice. It is the most selective credential in American matrimonial law.

Allyson served as Past Chair of the Family Law Section of The Florida Bar, the statewide organization that represents every family law attorney in the state. She also co-chaired the Section's Legislative Committee, founded the West Pasco Family Law Committee, and revamped The Florida Bar's Matrimonial Trial Advocacy Seminar — a program that has trained a generation of Florida family lawyers in courtroom practice. She has chaired and presented at the Matrimonial Certification Review, which prepares attorneys seeking Board Certification.

Over more than thirty years of practice, Allyson has handled the full range of family law matters, from straightforward dissolutions to highly contested litigation involving substantial assets, business ownership, professional practices, retirement accounts, and contested parenting plans. She represents the people who build the Tampa Bay economy:

• Working professionals — engineers, accountants, government employees, mid-level managers, and military veterans
• Tradespeople in HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and construction, whether on payroll or working as 1099 subcontractors
• High-asset clients including corporate executives, regional directors, car dealership owners, insurance agency principals, and real estate agency owners
• Healthcare professionals from staff nurses, CRNAs, and physician assistants to hospitalists and employed physicians
• Trades business owners running their own HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and construction companies with crews and equipment
• Medical, dental, and specialty practice owners
• Gray-divorce clients ending long marriages where retirement accounts, pensions, Social Security timing, and a lifetime of accumulated assets are all on the table

She has tried cases, negotiated settlements, and guided clients through mediation and collaborative divorce at every level of complexity, and she has been called upon to serve as an expert witness in proceedings where her depth of knowledge was needed by the court.

Allyson is also widely recognized for her work on equine cases. As an accomplished trainer and exhibitor of World Champion Morgan Horses, she is uniquely qualified to handle dissolutions involving horses, breeding operations, and equine business assets — an area in which Florida attorneys with both the legal credentials and the working knowledge are exceedingly rare.

That breadth of experience — across asset types, family situations, and courtroom postures — is what allows her to anticipate where a case is going before opposing counsel does.

She practices throughout Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Hernando counties from her office in New Port Richey, Florida. Her clients consistently describe the same experience: calm under pressure, exhaustively prepared, and relentless in pursuit of the outcome that protects what matters to them. That experience is the product of three decades spent practicing one area of law at the highest level the profession recognizes.