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Eleven Miller, Miller & Canby Attorneys Recognized as Best Lawyers in America® for 2025 and Two Attorneys Recognized in Exclusive “Lawyer of the Year” Category

Posted September 3, 2024 at 12:30 PM

Business & Tax, Eminent Domain and Condemnation, Employment Law, Land Development, Litigation, MM&C Happenings, News & Events, Press, Real Estate

Miller, Miller & Canby is pleased to announce eleven firm attorneys have been recognized as Best Lawyers in America.® for 2025. Joseph (Joe) Suntum, Joel (Jody) Kline, Donna McBride, Michael Campbell, Robert Gough, Diane Feuerherd, Kevin D’Anna, Scott Mirsky, Taggart Hutchinson and Sean Hughes have been recognized in their respective areas of practice and Lisa Blitstein has been recognized to the Best Lawyers “Ones to Watch” list, an honor for attorneys who are early in their careers, typically in practice nine years or less. Michael Campbell and Donna McBride are additionally being recognized as “Lawyer of the Year” – Campbell for Construction Litigation and McBride for Insurance Litigation. Only one attorney in a given practice area in a designated region is honored as “Lawyer of the Year”, making this a particularly notable recognition.

Joe Suntum is the leader of the Eminent Domain and Condemnation group at MM&C. His decades of trial experience and in-depth knowledge of real property valuation and the law of eminent domain allow him to protect his clients’ property rights and maximize compensation when their properties are targeted for condemnation. Suntum is the Owners’ Counsel of America member attorney for the State of Maryland and former Chair of the Owners Counsel Board of Directors. The firm’s Eminent Domain practice has been honored as a Best Law Firms Metropolitan “Tier 1” practice for the last four years. In 2023, Suntum was recognized as the Best Lawyers® 2023 Eminent Domain and Condemnation “Lawyer of the Year” for the Washington metropolitan region.

Jody Kline has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America every year since 2007. He joined Miller, Miller & Canby in 1974, has been a principal of the firm since 1981 and has served as head of the firm’s Land Use & Zoning practice since that time. His practice concentrates on land use, zoning and subdivision law, representing private clients, nonprofit entities, and municipal corporations and agencies. He is active in a variety of community organizations, including serving on the Board of the Montgomery Parks Foundation.

Donna McBride is a partner in Miller, Miller & Canby’s Litigation department, where she focuses on complex business matters for corporate clients, as well as insurance-related litigation and trust litigation. In 2023, she was appointed by Governor Wes Moore to her 3^rd four-year term on the Montgomery County Trial Courts Judicial Nominating Commission. Also in 2023, the Maryland Supreme Court appointed her to the Attorney Grievance Commission. She is also a member of, and former co-chair of, the Maryland State Bar Association’s Judicial Appointments Committee and continues to be active in the Montgomery County Bar Association. She is a former President, and current Bencher, of the Montgomery County Inn of Court. In 2023, she was recognized as Litigator of the Year by the Litigation Section of the Maryland State Bar Association.

Michael Campbell is the firm’s Managing Partner, and focuses his practice on disputes involving real estate, construction projects and commercial leases in state and federal courts in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia and before arbitrators. Now in his third decade at the firm, he has tried more than 100 cases before judges, juries and arbitrators and has resolved many others through mediation and private resolution with opposing counsel. He has also developed an expertise in property tax appeals for commercial and high-value residential properties in Maryland, successfully reducing assessments for clients on shopping centers, office buildings, big box stores, medical buildings, golf courses, assisted living facilities, and apartment complexes.

Robert Gough leads the firm’s Real Estate department and focuses his practice in commercial real estate transactions and leasing, land development, commercial and residential closings, and related litigation. With more than three decades of experience, he represents developers, institutions and individuals in the acquisition and disposition of real property, ranging from complex commercial real estate development transactions, to advising clients with existing real estate holdings on development and ownership options, to assisting individuals purchasing residential property or in transferring ownership for estate planning purposes. Miller, Miller & Canby is an agent of Fidelity National Title Insurance Company and Mr. Gough oversees and conducts closings for clients’ commercial real estate and loan transactions.

Diane Feuerherd chairs the litigation practice at Miller, Miller & Canby. She is an appellate and trial attorney, focusing on business, estate, real estate and eminent domain litigation in the Maryland state and federal courts. She completed a two-term appellate clerkship with the Honorable Lynne A. Battaglia of the Supreme Court of Maryland before joining the firm in the fall of 2013. She serves as a contributing editor for the Maryland State Bar Association’s (MSBA’s) Maryland Appellate Blog and is a contributing author to the treatise Appellate Practice for the Maryland Lawyer: State and Federal. Outside of the courtroom, she has remained dedicated to serving and improving the legal profession, at the local, state and national level. In 2023, Governor Moore appointed her to the Appellate Courts Judicial Nominating Commission for the State of Maryland. She also holds leadership positions in the Maryland Bar Foundation, the Bar Association for Montgomery County and the Montgomery County Inns of Court.

Kevin D’Anna is a Principal at Miller, Miller & Canby and a member of the firm’s Business & Tax and Real Estate (finance) practice groups. He regularly advises local and regional businesses of varying size and industry as a trusted outside counsel, providing legal advice on business formation, mergers, acquisitions or disposition, and complex business transactions.

Scott Mirsky is a Principal in Miller, Miller & Canby’s Employment Law and Employment Litigation practice, with more than 20 years of experience representing individuals and businesses in diverse civil matters throughout the Washington, DC region. He has experience handling non-compete and trade secret disagreements, employment claims, issues concerning independent contractors, complex construction issues, wage and overtime disputes under the FLSA and state law, and breach of contract claims. He is a frequent speaker on employment law matters and is often quoted in press coverage of employment-related workplace issues.

Taggart (Tagg) Hutchinson is a Principal in Miller, Miller & Canby’s Real Estate practice, focusing on commercial real estate transactions, financings, and settlement services and related litigation, as well as property tax appeals and land development matters. He represents local developers and institutions in commercial real estate transactions, including acquisitions, sales and financings, land development and ownership options, title review, title insurance and settlements. He has experience in a wide range of government and business sectors including government contracts, State and local taxes, State and local grants and development funding, transportation, zoning and permitting, software and technology, the Maryland Public Service Commission, and legal advocacy on behalf of national associations.

Sean Hughes is a telecommunications and land development attorney. His practice focuses on helping clients who are in need of local governmental review and approval in order to proceed on development projects. His career spans more than two decades of focus in legal and wireless telecommunications, including handling public relations and affairs matters of a Fortune 50 company throughout the United States. During the course of his career, he has spoken extensively on topics related to telecommunications land use law. Additionally, he has represented clients in land use and zoning matters throughout the Mid-Atlantic area, and in litigation matters in Maryland and the District of Columbia.

Newly-named to the Best Lawyers “Ones to Watch” list, Lisa Blitstein is an associate in the Litigation practice group with a focus in land use, real estate, landlord-tenant, eminent domain, and environmental matters. She joined the firm after completing an appellate clerkship with the Honorable Kathryn G. Graeff of the Appellate Court of Maryland. She formerly served as a federal legal extern in the Office of General Counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She is dedicated to mentoring future lawyers through the MSBA and her alma mater, the University of Baltimore School of Law. Her legal research on federal renewable energy law is published in the University of Baltimore Law Review, and she has served as an adjunct professor for the National Environmental Law Moot Court at the law school since 2023. This year, Lisa joined the section council for the MSBA Environment and Energy Section, and she presented on Recent Developments in Environmental and Energy Law at the 2024 MSBA Legal Summit in Ocean City, Maryland.

Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers® has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Best Lawyers lists are compiled based on an exhaustive peer-review evaluation. More than 116,000 industry-leading lawyers are eligible to vote; for the current edition of The Best Lawyers in America® more than 12.2 million votes were recorded and analyzed to determine the final recognitions.

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About Miller, Miller & Canby
For more than 75 years, Miller, Miller & Canby has served the legal needs of metropolitan Washington, DC. As one of the oldest law firms in Montgomery County, MD, the firm recognizes that this milestone reflects the relationships built and maintained with our clients, friends and the business community, many spanning multiple generations. The firm maintains its focus on its core areas of practice: Land Use & Zoning, Real Estate, Litigation, Eminent Domain, Business & Tax, Employment and Estates and Trusts Law. The firm’s size allows its attorneys to maintain close contact with clients and have the opportunity to develop and foster trusted, lasting relationships. In all of our practice areas, an overarching concern for quality of product and efficiency of accomplishment assures clients that we strive for true value in legal representation. Miller, Miller & Canby is proud to have maintained this standard of service since the firm’s founding in 1946. For more information, visit www.millermillercanby.com.