Law 2025: SUMMERLIN III, DANIEL C.

For more than 25 years, Summerlin has advised businesses — from sole proprietorships to Fortune 500 companies — in environmental matters. Summerlin also assists employers with employment laws and regulations, including investigations with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

A Roanoke native, Summerlin returned to the Star City in 1997 to work at Woods Rogers after graduating from William & Mary Law School. The firm named him president in 2015.

In 2022, Woods Rogers merged with Norfolk-based Vandeventer Black, becoming Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black. Last year, the law firm — the fifth largest in Virginia — shortened its name back to Woods Rogers.

For the December 2024 issue of the Virginia State Bar’s Virginia Lawyer magazine, Summerlin and John Byrum, the firm’s Richmond office managing partner, contributed a column on how Virginia policy will likely be little changed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Sackett v. EPA, which narrowed the scope of wetlands subject to the Clean Water Act.

Summerlin sits on the board of the Council of Community Services, a Roanoke nonprofit that focuses on housing, health programs, information and referral services, and community engagement.

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