Karen Jean Hughes

Karen J. Hughes has been engaged in active trial practice for more than 20 years, with a focus on insurance defense. Karen received her undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in 1986.

She began her insurance oriented career working summers for the Arkansas Farm Bureau Insurance Company before attending the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, earning her Juris Doctor degree in 1989. She began her legal practice as a law clerk, and immediately after law school, as an associate at Laser Law Firm, P. A, where she practiced for seventeen years before joining several of her former associates and partners at Watts, Donovan and Tilley, P.A. in 2004.

Karen has served as a member of various organizations, including the American Bar Association, Arkansas Bar Association, Pulaski County Bar Association, Defense Research Institute, Central Arkansas Legal Services, American Judicature Society, Arkansas Association of Women Lawyers, and International Association of Arson Investigators.

Karen is licensed to practice in all Arkansas Courts, the Unites States District Court Eastern Division, United States District Court Western Division, and has argued cases before both the Arkansas Court of Appeals and Arkansas Supreme Court. She is listed in Martindale-Hubbell with a "BV" rating by her peers, was selected by fellow trial attorneys in 2007 to become a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), and was awarded the peer selected W. A. Eldridge Jr. Outstanding Young Trial Lawyer Award for 1999-2000.

The main focus of Karen's practice has been litigation, including numerous jury and bench trials. Karen is also experienced in both mediation and arbitration.

Karen has served as a seminar speaker at several insurance and trial practice seminars and continuing education programs and has also served as guest speaker on trial practices at the William H. Bowen School of Law where she has also served as judge for trial court competitions.

Karen's areas of practice have included all areas of insurance defense for numerous companies with a focus on general civil defense, automobile and trucking claims, extra contractual claims, insurance fraud investigation and litigation, premises liability, personal injury defense, uninsured and underinsured claims, and bad faith litigation.