13 Bryant Miller Olive P.A. Shareholders Recognized by Best Lawyers® in 2025
+2 13 Bryant Miller Olive P.A. Shareholders Recognized by Best Lawyers® in 2025
Bryant Miller Olive P.A. (BMO) is pleased to announce 13 attorneys, representing its Atlanta, Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, Tallahassee and Tampa offices, recognized by Best Lawyers® 2025. Only the top 5 percent of all practicing lawyers in the U.S. were selected by their peers for inclusion in the guide.
Kenneth R. Artin, Esq. was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2025 in Orlando for Public Finance Law. This is the 18th year that Artin has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America. He has been actively practicing public finance law since 1986, representing municipalities, counties, public and not-for-profit colleges and universities, as well as special taxing districts as disclosure counsel, bond counsel and special development counsel. Artin also focuses on representing sponsors and lenders participating in public private partnerships. Artin has been an active member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers regularly serving as faculty on its annual Bond Attorneys Workshop and the Fundamentals of Municipal Bond Law on topics involving disclosure and federal securities law. He served as president of the Association 2015-2016.
Rhonda D. Bond-Collins, Esq. was selected by her peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2025 in Orlando for Public Finance Law. She has been practicing law for more than 25 years. She currently serves as the managing shareholder of the firm’s Orlando office and the co-chair of the firm’s Affordable Housing practice group. Her practice focuses on all aspects of tax-exempt and taxable financings with an emphasis on affordable housing transactions. She is a frequent lecturer at continuing legal education (CLE) programs including the Florida Association of Housing Finance Authorities annual conference and the City, County and Local Government Law section of the Florida Bar Board Certification Review Course. In 2022, Bond-Collins was elected, by unanimous vote, as a regular fellow of the American College of Bond Counsel. This is the first year she has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America.
Randall C. Clement, Esq. was named as Lawyer of the Year for Public Finance Law in Orlando by Best Lawyers in 2025. This additional recognition is awarded to one lawyer with the highest overall peer feedback for a specific practice area and geographic region in the Best Lawyers edition. This is the second consecutive year Clement has been named Lawyer of the Year in Orlando for Public Finance Law and is the 20th year that Clement has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America. Clement has been practicing public finance law since 1982, with extensive experience in state and local government revenue bond financings in Florida. Clement’s focus is on airport, hospital, multi-family and single-family housing, electric, and water and sewer utility financings, as well as various special tax and enterprise fund financings.
Duane D. Draper, Esq. was named as Lawyer of the Year for Public Finance Law in Tampa by Best Lawyers in 2025. This additional recognition is awarded to one lawyer with the highest overall peer feedback for a specific practice area and geographic region in the Best Lawyers edition. This is the third consecutive year Draper has been named Lawyer of the Year in Tampa for Public Finance Law and is the 20th year that Draper has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America. Since 1989, Draper has specialized in public finance, either as an attorney or investment banker. He currently chairs the firm’s Public Finance Group and serves as the Business Development Chair.
Lomenie L. Etienne, Esq. was selected by her peers in the fifth edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America, which recognizes attorneys in their 5th through tenth years of legal practice, highlighting the next generation of legal leaders for a specific practice area and geographical region. Etienne represents BMO’s Orlando office, and focuses her practice on public finance law, with an emphasis on bond, disclosure and underwriter’s counsel representation. She currently serves as co-chair of the firm’s law clerk program.
Denise M. Heekin, Esq. was selected by her peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America2025 in Miami for Employment Law for Management and Litigation for Labor and Employment. Heekin is the managing shareholder of the firm’s Miami office and Chair of the firm’s Labor and Employment Group. Heekin is Board-Certified in Labor and Employment Law by The Florida Bar, and she has represented management exclusively in the practice of labor and employment law throughout her entire legal career, advising clients in both the private and public sectors. This is her fourth year being recognized in The Best Lawyers in America.
JoLinda L. Herring, Esq., BMO’s CEO and managing shareholder, was selected by her peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2025 in Miami for Public Finance Law. Herring’s practice is dedicated to municipal law, governmental tax-exempt financings, and blue-sky securities law, with a focus on commercial paper programs. She was instrumental in creating the Florida Municipal Loan Council and the Florida Rural Utility Financing Commission and serves as bond counsel to both entities. Herring joined Bryant Miller Olive as a law clerk in 1994, marking 2024 as her 30th anniversary with the firm. She has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America for the past seven years.
Leonard T. Marcinko, Esq. was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America2025 in Atlanta for Public Finance Law. He has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America for the past 20 years. Marcinko has more than 35 years of wide-ranging experience dealing with federal tax issues associated with the sale and issuance of tax-exempt bonds, as a government lawyer, as a private law practitioner, and as a public finance investment banker. In addition to his primary responsibility of dealing with federal income tax issues related to the firm’s public finance area, Marcinko has headed up Bryant Miller Olive’s representation of clients in the area of interest rate swaps and other derivative product transactions.
William A. Milford, Esq. was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America2025 in Jacksonville for Public Finance Law. He focuses his legal practice on the federal income tax treatment of tax-exempt debt obligations. Milford has more than 19 years of experience in public finance. Milford serves as tax counsel on a variety of governmental, 501(c)(3) and exempt facility bond financings. In addition to transactional work, Milford advises issuers and borrowers on post-issuance tax compliance matters. Milford is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers. He currently serves as Chair of NABL’s Education Committee. This is the first year he has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America.
David C. Miller, Esq. was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2025 in Miami in Employment Law, Management. He is a board-certified attorney in Labor and Employment Law by The Florida Bar. An attorney for more than 20 years, his focus is on labor unions, employment litigation and human resources counseling, exclusively representing management. His primary focus is in three areas: Dealing with labor unions — bargaining, grievances, arbitrations, and litigation; Employment litigation — discrimination, whistleblower, wage/hour, retaliation and other causes of action before federal and state courts and administrative agencies; and human resources counseling — helping managers deal with day-to-day issues, training, compliance, policies and procedures, drafting ordinances, public records, and Sunshine Law. He also represents public sector employers who sponsor pension plans. This is his third year receiving recognition in The Best Lawyers in America.
Robert C. Reid, Esq. was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2025 in Tallahassee for Public Finance Law. For the past 47 years, his practice has been concentrated in financial transactions and tax planning. Since 1985, his concentration in tax-exempt and taxable financing has increased so that now he exclusively devotes his practice to this area. Reid joined Bryant Miller Olive in 1989. He routinely applies his tax background and experience in tax matters arising in financings involving multi-family housing, single family housing, public housing, hotels, convention and sports facilities, educational facilities and governmental projects. In 2024, Reid was elected, by unanimous vote, as a regular fellow of the American College of Bond Counsel. This is the first year he has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America.
Misty W. Taylor, Esq., was selected by her peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America2025 in Orlando in the field of Public Finance Law. Her practice focuses on community development and stewardship districts, affordable housing, healthcare and general local governments. She serves as chair of BMO’s Special District Finance Group and serves on the firm’s Board of Directors. Taylor joined the Firm as a paralegal in 2001 and has been an attorney in the firm’s Orlando office since 2008. Since joining the firm, Taylor has participated in hundreds of public finance transactions, including bond, disclosure, lender and underwriter’s counsel representations. This is the second year that she has been selected for The Best Lawyers in America.
Alan S. Zimmet, Esq. was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2025 in Tampa for Municipal Law and Litigation, Municipal. Zimmet is a member of the firm’s Litigation group and the Government Counsel Services Practice Group. He has more than 40 years of experience and is board-certified by The Florida Bar in City, County, and Local Government Law. Zimmet represents local governments, including cities, counties and special districts. His litigation practice focuses on construction matters, civil rights matters and other complex civil litigation cases. Zimmet handles matters in both state and federal trial courts, and has argued numerous cases before Florida’s appellate courts, including the Florida Supreme Court and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. This is Zimmet’s fourth year being recognized in The Best Lawyers in America.
“Year after year, Bryant Miller Olive P.A. celebrates many of its attorneys being selected to The Best Lawyers in America,” said Herring. “This is an incredible accomplishment, as these recognitions are provided by their legal peers. These designations reflect the continued respect we earn in the legal industry in various practice areas.”
For the 31st edition of The Best Lawyers in America®, more than 23 million votes were analyzed, which resulted in more than 80,000 leading lawyers included in 2025. Additionally, more than 4 million votes were analyzed, which resulted in more than 27,000 lawyers being honored in the new edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America.
Lawyers on The Best Lawyers in America list are divided by geographic region and practice areas. They are reviewed by their peers based on professional expertise and undergo a rigorous authentication process to ensure they are in current practice and good standing.
