news & events

Eleven Miller, Miller & Canby Attorneys Recognized as Best Lawyers in America® for 2026 and One MM&C Attorney Recognized in Exclusive “Lawyer of the Year” Category

Posted September 15, 2025 at 11:00 AM

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

MM&C is pleased to announce eleven firm attorneys have been recognized as Best Lawyers in America.® for 2026. Joseph (Joe) Suntum, Joel (Jody) Kline, Donna McBride, Michael Campbell, Diane Feuerherd, Taggart (Tagg) Hutchinson, Kevin D’Anna, Scott Mirsky, Robert Gough, Sean Hughes and Peter Randolph have been recognized in their respective areas of practice. Donna McBride is additionally being recognized as “Lawyer of the Year” – for Estates and Trusts Litigation. She was also honored as Lawyer of the Year in 2025, 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. He 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 five years.  In 2023, he was recognized as the Best Lawyers® 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.

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 3rd four-year term on the 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 Selections Committee and continues to be active in the Montgomery County Bar Association. She is a former President, and current member 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. 2026 is the second year she has been named a Best Lawyers®  “Lawyer of the Year” for the Washington metropolitan region.

Michael Campbell is the firm’s Managing Partner and focuses his practice on negotiating leases and construction contracts, and he regularly handles disputes involving contracts, 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 on warehouses, shopping centers, office buildings, medical buildings, golf courses, assisted living facilities, and apartment complexes. In 2025, he was named the Best Lawyers®  “Lawyer of the Year” for the Washington metropolitan region for Construction Litigation.

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. Known in Maryland for her appellate work, 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. In 2023, Governor Wes 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. In addition, she is active in several other bar organizations, including the Owners’ Counsel of America, a national network of experienced eminent domain attorneys who represent property owners.

Taggart (Tagg) Hutchinson leads the firm’s Real Estate department.  His practice focuses on commercial real estate transactions, financing, commercial and solar lease agreements, and settlement services.  He represents local developers, property owners and institutions in acquisitions, sales, financings, land use development and zoning, title review, and settlements.  Prior to joining Miller, Miller & Canby, he served as Agency Counsel to Montgomery County’s Department of Finance where he advised the County Tax Collector on the collection of various State and local property and excise taxes.  Miller, Miller & Canby is an agent of Fidelity National Title Insurance Company; Hutchinson oversees and conducts closings for the firm’s commercial real estate and loan transactions.

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. Additionally, he advises financial institutions in connection with asset-based, real estate, and USDA and SBA guaranteed loan transactions, and has also successfully closed a multitude of commercial loan and M&A transactions from both sides of the table.

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.

Robert Gough is a Principal in Miller, Miller & Canby’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.

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 three decades of focus on 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 The Best Lawyers in America, Peter Randolph is a Principal in Miller, Miller & Canby’s business and tax practice group. His multijurisdictional practice is focused on taxation, business, and probate and trust administration. He advises small businesses on partnership and corporate taxation, corporate governance, buy-sell agreements, reclassification, restructuring and succession planning. He advises entrepreneurs and startups on business and taxation issues, including choice of entity, Qualified Small Business Stock, funding through equity and non-equity participation of investors, and compliance.  He also acts as outside general counsel to a number of businesses. He regularly advises executors, trustees and beneficiaries in the areas of probate and trust administration, including pre- and post-mortem planning, and estate, gift, and fiduciary income tax. He works with high net worth individuals and families, producing comprehensive estate plans to maximize the client’s family, business, and financial security.

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.

Click the download attachment button below to view the formal press release.

About Miller, Miller & Canby
In 2026, Miller, Miller & Canby marks 80 years of serving 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.

RELATED NEWS & RESOURCES