Barbara R. Trader

Barbara Trader began the practice of law in 1984 when she served as a law clerk for the Honorable James J. Couch, Jr., Court of Appeals of Maryland. After finishing her clerkship, she was chosen as one of sixty-four attorneys nation-wide to fill the position of Honors Attorney for the United States Department of Justice in Washington D.C.
In 1986 she married her husband, Erick Trader, and returned to live on the Eastern Shore. She joined Adkins, Potts & Smethurst, a general civil litigation practice in Salisbury, and grew her practice with an emphasis on family law. In 1995 she opened her own law firm, and from that point on her practice has been almost exclusively in family law. She has represented parents, as well as children, in all aspects of divorce, guardianships and adoptions at the Circuit Court level as well as on Appeal. She has served as Chair of the Maryland State Bar Association Family Law Section Council, President of the Wicomico County Bar Association and President of the Lower Eastern Shore Women’s Bar Association.
Barbara has extensive experience as a mediator. She completed training in 2003 and since then has served as a court appointed mediator in Worcester, Wicomico, and Somerset Counties. She also offers private mediation for those who prefer to resolve their issues amicably instead of in court.
Her honors include recognition as one of Maryland’s Top 100 women; she has been named one of the Top Attorneys in Maryland since 2011; she has been BV Rated by Martindale Hubbell since 2000; and she is a Lifetime Member of the Maryland Bar Foundation. Since 2005, she has contributed to her profession by making presentations to her colleagues on family law issues. In recent years she has served on the teaching faculty of the Administrative Office of the Courts’ Department of Judicial Education. She is an editor of the Maryland Family Law Bench Book. She has trained others to serve as child counsel and as property and financial mediators.
Most recently Barbara has expanded her practice to include estate planning and administration. As she puts it, “as I get older, so do my clients, and I want to be able to address end-of-life issues with them”.