McFarland partners Billy Coe Dyer, Laura Manion, Charles McFarland, and Mark Merrell have been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America® 2026 Edition in the Eminent Domain and Condemnation Law category. Clarissa Levingston, an associate in her 4th year of practice, is honored among the Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch 2026 for Eminent Domain and Condemnation Law.
First published in 1983, Best Lawyers is a highly regarded guide to legal excellence, compiled based on an exhaustive peer-review evaluation. With more than 184,000 industry-leading lawyers from around the world eligible to vote, Best Lawyers receives more than 26 million evaluations on the legal abilities of lawyers based on their specific practice areas. Lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed; therefore, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor.
Recognized by Best Lawyers for 16 years running, McFarland has deep experience handling condemnation matters and has built a law firm and respected legal team focused on standing up for landowners. He has personally tried dozens of condemnation cases to jury and hundreds of administrative hearings before special commissioners. McFarland has represented property owners across Texas in significant condemnation cases against the State, the Texas Department of Transportation, and numerous other local governmental agencies and public-use entities. He recently secured a Texas Supreme Court victory on behalf of a client in a regulatory-takings case.
Dyer is perennially ranked among Best Lawyers’ top eminent domain and condemnation law experts, including recognition as Best Lawyers’ “Lawyer of the Year” for Eminent Doman and Condemnation Law in Houston (2017 and 2024). Dyer’s notable victories include the largest jury verdict for a property owner in a condemnation case in Texas and landowner representation in Interstate Northborough, the Texas Supreme Court case establishing a property owner’s right to recover proximity damages from an interstate highway project – a ruling that has been cited over 300 times.
Like her McFarland colleagues, Manion, who makes her Best Lawyers debut, is focused on representing property owners in a wide variety of acquisitions, including roadway widening projects, easement acquisitions, and fee takings of properties from vacant land to retail and special use buildings. She has also represented property owners pursuing regulatory takings and inverse condemnation claims where the government restricts use of the property without payment of just compensation.
Merrell, who was listed in 2024 as well, exclusively practices eminent domain and condemnation law leveraging his insights gained while working on behalf of governmental and public-use entities in acquiring property and rights for large-scale infrastructure projects for property owners. He has handled hundreds of cases involving the full spectrum of public-use projects, from road widenings involving the Texas Department of Transportation to oil and gas pipeline takings and everything in between.
Levingston joined McFarland in 2023 and transitioned her practice to focus on condemnation law after experience with a general litigation firm and several clerkships. She is admitted to practice in Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama.