Find Lawyers in America for Eminent Domain and Condemnation Law
Practice Area Overview
More recently, government has perceived a need to expand the exercise of eminent domain beyond its classic takings context to include a variety of “rationally conceivable” public benefits thinly tethered to public use. In these instances, lawyers are asked to advise their clients on whether the government has been faithful to its constitutional duties to take property only for a public use upon payment of just compensation and in accordance with statutory procedures enacted to protect property owners.
In instances where governmental regulations “go too far” and impose burdens on private interests that should be borne by the public as a whole, lawyers evaluate whether the regulation unconstitutionally deprives the owner of all economically viable use of property or has a significant impact on its value and the owner’s investment-backed expectations.
The Takings Clause also places limits on the power of government to impose exactions for development permits. These exactions may be fees, dedications of real property, or other obligations asserted to offset the impact of a development project. Under the doctrine of unconstitutional exactions, a benefit demanded of the landowner must have a nexus to the impact of the development and be roughly proportional to its anticipated effects.
In many instances, lawyers in this practice area engage experts in appraisal, construction, development, economics, environmental remediation, engineering, permitting, planning, zoning, and related professions to secure fair treatment, fair value, and a fair understanding of whether one of the most potent powers granted to government has been exercised in fidelity to lawful mandates.
Select a location from the list below to find the best legal talent for your needs.
State
Jody Harper Alderman grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 1991 with a BA in History and a BA in Economics. Jody graduated from the University of Colorado School of Law in 1994, Order of the Coif. She was the Editor in Chief of the Law Review. She has been in private practice since 1994 and is currently a member/owner of the firm Alderman Bernstein LLC, where she practices in the areas of eminent domain and condemnation law and real estate-related lit...
Robert Alfert, Jr., is a Florida Bar Board Certified Attorney in Construction Law, and an experienced Construction Arbitrator. He concentrates his practice in construction law and litigation, infrastructure and transportation, including public-private partnerships. His experience in construction and infrastructure derives from his education and prior work experience in architecture, in addition to more than twenty-five years of handling complex construction matters and infrastructure projects...
George B. Autry, Jr. has been a trial lawyer since 1991 and has practiced exclusively eminent domain since 1993. Before joining Cranfill, Sumner & Hartzog, LLP as a partner in 2001, George was a partner in Autry & Crabill, a Raleigh eminent domain law firm. Prior to representing exclusively property owners in eminent domain matters, George handled condemnation cases as an Associate Attorney General for the State of North Carolina. George’s career has included over fifty cases wh...
Stephanie Hutchins Autry has been a trial lawyer since 1987 and has focused her practice on eminent domain since 2000. Before joining Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog as a partner in 1995, Stephanie was a partner in the Raleigh office of an international law firm. Stephanie’s career has included dozens of successful jury and bench trials and reported appellate decisions. For the last 15 years, Stephanie has concentrated her practice exclusively in the area of eminent domain, representing p...
Founding partner Keith M. Babcock grew up in Haddonfield, New Jersey, and has practiced law in South Carolina for almost 40 years. Now "of counsel" to Lewis Babcock, his practice has consisted almost exclusively of litigation, with a concentration on business disputes, eminent domain, and professional negligence. He has an outstanding reputation for representing real property owners in eminent domain actions, as well as other disputes. He is an emeritus member of Owners' Counsel of America , ...
Vincent J. Bartolotta, Jr. is a founding partner of Thorsnes Bartolotta McGuire. He specializes in plaintiffs' litigation with an emphasis in business disputes, condemnation, and major injury cases. A tenacious litigator, Bartolotta is recognized annually by Woodward/White as one of the Best Lawyers in America -- a recognition he's received every year since 1987. "There's really no secret about what I do," he says, "I really do care for my clients; each case gets a piece of my soul." Bartolot...
Michael Berger is one of California’s preeminent appellate lawyers and is a partner in Manatt Real Estate and the appellate practice. One of the top land use and condemnation lawyers in the United States, his appellate cases have involved planning, zoning, eminent domain, various kinds of business litigation, landslides, contract, due process, equal protection, defective construction, nuisance, insurance and environmental law. Michael has argued four cases before the United States Supre...
For twenty years, Carrie Bernstein has used her experience and expertise in the areas of eminent domain law and real estate litigation to advocate for her clients. Without excess drama, Carrie has a no-nonsense approach to helping her clients that people appreciate. At Alderman Bernstein, Carrie represents private landowners, quasi-municipal corporations, and public entities in eminent domain in both litigation and appeals. She has been designated as one of the Best Lawyers in America for Emi...
After clerking for Maine Supreme Court Justice Robert Clifford for a year after law school, Mike dove straight into construction law, defending architects and engineers in construction cases at a small Portland insurance defense firm. Since joining Bernstein Shur a decade and a half ago, Mike has had the pleasure of representing the full panoply of participants on a construction project: developers, owners, general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, lenders, and sureties in everything fr...
Jackson Bowman is a partner in the Moore Bowman & Reese, P.A. firm located in the St. Petersburg office. For over 25 years, Mr. Bowman’s professional career has involved real estate-related matters. He is a graduate of The University of the South (B.A. 1985) and Stetson University College of Law (J.D. 1998). Mr. Bowman brings experience as a real estate appraiser and consultant to the field of eminent domain law. He holds the MAI designation (inactive) from the Appraisal Institute, ...
Amanda Bradley is a real estate litigation and transactional attorney with more than 20 years of experience advising clients in real property transactions, negotiating and preparing real estate contracts and related documents, and representing clients in all phases of real estate litigation. She has represented clients in eminent domain actions involving various municipal and county governments, special districts and urban renewal authorities throughout Colorado, including negotiation of poss...
My law practice is focused primarily on eminent domain/condemnation law, but also includes municipal law, administrative law, and other real estate-related litigation matters. After graduating with an undergraduate degree in civil engineering, I obtained a "Professional Engineer" certification from both Illinois and Arizona, and practiced as an engineer in both the private and public sectors for seven (7) years. Since graduating from law school, I have practiced law with the law firms of Mari...
Mr. Brigham is a third generation trial lawyer with experience in complex, high-profile cases involving real estate of many kinds. He is best known for work throughout Florida representing property or business owners in eminent domain proceedings. In 2008, Mr. Brigham was lead counsel in a case where he obtained the largest jury verdict in Florida state court eminent domain proceedings in the amount of $67,410,000 against the Jacksonville Port Authority. More recently, in 2013-2018, he was le...
Kevin Brogan specializes in the trial of real estate and business cases, with a particular emphasis on eminent domain and inverse condemnation matters. He has substantial experience in the trial of jury and nonjury matters in state and federal courts, as well as before administrative tribunals and other forums. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Children's Hospital Los Angeles and Chair of its Foundation Board.
Kraig Byron is a Shareholder in the Litigation & Risk Management Practice Group at von Briesen & Roper, s.c. Kraig offers many years of experience in the areas of complex business litigation, labor and employment litigation, outdoor advertising law, tax assessments, family law issues, anti-trust matters and general civil litigation. Kraig has been a featured speaker at continuing professional education courses on Wisconsin property law and other related legal issues. Kraig has present...
Mr. Cate is a litigation attorney in the firm’s Northwest Arkansas office. His practice focuses on commercial litigation, including litigation concerning ERISA, employment, mortgage servicing, real estate, media law, eminent domain, products liability, and class action defense. His experience includes representing defendants in putative class actions filed in Arkansas and Missouri regarding Internet practices, defending a national mortgage servicer in a putative class action concerning ...
Christopher M. Clough joined Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, PLLC in 2008 and has been a Managing Partner since 2014. Previously, Mr. Clough spent four years with the Transportation Division of the Attorney General’s office, representing the State of Texas predominantly in eminent domain matters. He focuses on major road projects throughout the state and other major land use cases including such recent cases as AM Peeler Ranch, LLC v. San Miguel Electric Cooperative, Inc., and City of...
Jennifer Cranston (formerly Ratcliff) focuses her practice in three primary areas: real estate disputes involving condemnation and valuation issues; insurance coverage analysis and bad faith litigation; and public utility regulation. Jennifer’s objective is to provide sound legal advice, exceptional service, and cost-effective resolution for all her clients. She has successfully negotiated favorable settlements, as well as prevailed for clients at hearings, in arbitrations, at trial, an...
Joan has over thirty years of experience in eminent domain and condemnation law and has taught seminars to other lawyers on how to handle condemnation cases involving commercial property. She has a wide range of experience in federal district court, federal bankruptcy court, and many state court systems. Joan has been inducted as a Lifetime Member of the Million and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forums for obtaining multiple recoveries for her clients in excess of One Million Dollars. She ha...
Gaylord Merlin represents property and business owners in eminent domain and property rights litigation throughout the State of Florida. Our firm guides an owner through the condemnation process, protects an owner's property rights, and fights for an owner to receive full compensation. Andrew G. Diaz represents a variety of business and property owners in eminent domain and property rights litigation. He has handled cases involving the taking of large vacant parcels, national big box retailer...
Billy Coe Dyer is a board-certified civil trial attorney with more than 30 years of experience representing landowner clients against condemning authorities at the local, county, state, and national levels. Widely recognized as an authority in the condemnation and eminent domain arenas, Billy’s lengthy list of notable victories includes the largest jury verdict for a property owner in a condemnation case in Texas and representation of the landowner in Interstate Northborough, the Texas ...
Tyler is regularly identified among the top commercial trial lawyers in the state. Best Lawyers in America , Chambers USA, Super Lawyers, and Benchmark Litigation. For 2021, Best Lawyers has recognized Tyler for commercial litigation, appellate practice, and intellectual property litigation. In its 2020 edition, Chambers USA touted Tyler's trial experience and wrote that he "is a popular choice for bet the company litigation." Benchmark Litigation has observed that: "On the younger end of the...
Mr. Garner, a Member of the firm is a trial lawyer specializing in commercial and complex litigation. He has been lead counsel in cases in New Mexico, California, West Virginia, Kansas, Arizona, Indiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, involving complex and class action litigation ranging from asbestos exposure, benzene exposure, mass closings of big box retailers, noise pollution, commercial, banking, bankruptcy and financial litigation. He is admitted to practice before the fede...
Blake Gaylord is a partner practicing in the field of eminent domain and property rights. He has successfully represented property owners statewide in jury trials, bench trials, and administrative and Value Adjustment Board proceedings. Prior to joining the firm, Blake served as an officer in the U.S. Army where he was deployed in both Operation Iraqi Freedom (Kuwait) and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan). Professionally, he has served as the Chairman of the Eminent Domain Committee of...
Background Cary Gaylord has represented clients in over 30 counties in Florida as well as in the federal courts and courts of Illinois and Georgia. He has handled cases involving large vacant parcels, churches, national big box retailers, shopping centers, gas station/convenience stores, fast food restaurants, supermarket chains, professional offices, farmers, retailers, grove operators, golf course owners, homeowners, as well as other properties both in eminent domain and inverse condemnatio...
Mr. Grand concentrates his practice in all phases of complex commercial litigation, including trials. He has litigated a broad range of commercial disputes. His experience encompasses legal malpractice defense, suits alleging the theft of trade secrets and violations of non-competition clauses, eminent domain proceedings, and cases involving environmental contamination and the breach of real estate and other contracts. Mr. Grand has successfully litigated cases in the Chancery and Law Divisio...
Mr. Grooms is a founding and managing member of Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull PLLC. He represents banks, health care managers, real estate developers, real estate brokers, and other clients in a variety of transactional matters. Mr. Grooms has substantial experience in real estate and general commercial lending transactions and has been frequently involved in matters of eminent domain. He has negotiated hundreds of retail, office and commercial space leases on behalf of major national retail...
A certified specialist in real estate law, Jeff concentrates his practice in real estate related litigation, including eminent domain, zoning, inverse condemnation and real estate valuation disputes. He has extensive experience in eminent domain and land use related matters at the governmental, trial court and appellate court levels in city, state, federal and tribal jurisdictions. Although the focus of his work is in condemnation and land use law, he has also addressed diverse real property ...
Ms. Harden has 20 years of civil litigation experience in the Commonwealth of Virginia. She has litigated diverse and varied topics throughout her career including eminent domain, breach of contract, medical malpractice, construction defect, partition, establishment of prescriptive easement, professional liability, covenant enforcement, and actions to quiet title. In recent years, Ms. Harden’s practice has focused on representing condemning authorities in eminent domain matters. Ms. Har...
Ms. Haywood's law practice is devoted to representing private property owners in land condemnation cases. She graduated in 1977 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in International Studies. In 1982, she received her Juris Doctor degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law. After practicing for several years with a private law firm, Ms. Haywood went to work with the North Carolina Attorney General's office in Raleigh. F...
Lela M. Hollabaugh has served as the lead trial lawyer in more than a dozen jury trials, as well as more than two dozen bench trials, arbitrations and administrative hearings. She advises leading natural gas pipeline companies on issues involving location, land acquisition, construction and operations. Hollabaugh serves as lead counsel for several pipeline projects in the southeast involving more than 200 lawsuits. She also represents leading pharmaceutical, medical device and other manufactu...
William A. Horn received his bachelor's degree with honors from the University of Wisconsin and graduated cum laude from the University of Wisconsin Law School. Bill specializes in environmental, oil and gas, eminent domain, water and riparian rights, land use and public utility law, as well as civil and administrative litigation, and has been representing and counseling private and public sector clients in these areas since 1982. In addition to having served as an adjunct professor for a law...
Fred focuses his practice on civil litigation and appeals. His background includes litigation involving public law issues and real estate and commercial disputes. Fred has represented clients in a wide variety of litigation involving governmental matters, including condemnation and inverse condemnation proceedings, construction disputes, election contests, zoning controversies and contract actions. He has extensive experience with regard to eminent domain law, having represented both acquirin...
Rich Keshian has extensive experience in civil litigation, concentrating in product liability and business litigation. He is a certified mediator and arbitrator. Mr. Keshian has represented numerous clients in the automotive and furniture industries and other manufacturing industries regarding product liability issues. Mr. Keshian is also an adjunct professor at Wake Forest School of Law. During law school, Mr. Keshian was an Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review . Mr. Keshian has regularly bee...
Ken is a Fellow in the American College of Construction Lawyers, and has served on the Governing Committee of the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Construction Industry. He has degrees in chemistry from Cornell and meteorology from Penn State. In 1996, Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences named him a Centennial Fellow. He was a meteorologist for 4 years, serving as General Staff Weather Briefing Officer in Saigon, Vietnam (7th Air Force), and Chief Forecaster ...
Johnny Linton represents Plaintiffs and Defendants and practices full-time as Special Counsel at Duffy & Young, LLC. He has concluded jury and non-jury trials in five Divisions of the United States District Court; has prevailed for clients in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the South Carolina Supreme Court, and the South Carolina Court of Appeals; and was lead counsel on brief and oral argument against the Solicitor General of the United States, Charles Fried, i...
John is AV-rated, the highest rating offered by Martindale-Hubbell®. He has tried cases to verdict in both state and federal court. He represents plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of litigation matters, as well as landowners in condemnation cases. His practice encompasses a broad range of areas including federal practice, business and commercial litigation, eminent domain/condemnation, personal injury, zoning appeals, intellectual property litigation and employment litigation. John w...
Sharon V. Lovejoy represents clients in a wide variety of litigation matters with primary focus in commercial, real estate and business litigation. Ms. Lovejoy has been named to The Best Lawyers in America ® , "Lawyer of the Year" in Honolulu list, Appellate P ractice (2020), Mortgage Banking Foreclosure Law (2015, 2019, 2024) and Litigation-Banking & Finance (2014, 2022, 2025). Lovejoy is also recognized by The Best Lawyers in America ® (in “Appellate Law”, "Arbitrati...
Brian Lubkeman has practiced in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area for over 20 years, concentrating on complex real estate transactions (both developed and raw-land transactions, from acquisition through disposition); real estate development matters; commercial lending transactions (for borrowers and lenders); and commercial leasing (both landlord and tenant representations, for public and private companies, across all property types, including retail, commercial, industrial and specialty...
Background Lorena Hart Ludovici represents clients throughout the state of Florida. She has handled cases in Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. Her diverse clientele includes shopping center owners, retailers, supermarket chains, gas stations, restaurants, professional offices, cell tower owners, golf course owners as well as farmers, grove operators, home-owners and many others. Accomplishments .Ms. Ludovici's leadership in the field of eminent domain includes chairing The Florida Bar's eminent d...
Alan Marcuvitz is a Shareholder in the Real Estate Section. He is recognized as one of Wisconsin’s preeminent attorneys in the fields of eminent domain and real property taxation, based on his extensive experience in both trial and appellate courts. Many of his Wisconsin Supreme Court cases are cited with the following representative cases being cited frequently: Warehouse II, LLC v. State Dept. of Transp. , 2006 WI 62, 291 Wis. 2d 80, 715 N.W.2d 213 Metropolitan Holding Company vs. Boa...
James D. Masterman is a trial lawyer with a broad range of experience in eminent domain and real estate valuation litigation, including tax proceedings and lease arbitrations, and in the litigation of land use and property rights issues. His representation of commercial, industrial and residential property owners and developers requires his appearance in U.S. District Court, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, and every state and administrative court of Massachusetts and throughout New England. His advice...
Robert McConnell is a member of the firm’s transaction and real estate practice groups and has substantial experience in commercial financing transactions representing lenders, borrowers and developers. Mr. McConnell represents clients undertaking a wide variety of commercial and residential real estate development activities, including residential, retail and office condominium developments, low-income housing projects utilizing tax credit financing, subdivision and mixed-use community...
Charles is a board-certified civil trial lawyer and primarily represents property owners in securing just compensation when government takes private property for public use. While his experience has included takings projects for highway expansion, pipelines, electric transmission lines, and flood control, Charles’s principal practice is focused on highway and roadway widening projects impacting retail, commercial, and industrial uses. Charles has obtained successful special commissioner...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.