The Law Firm of Budow and Noble:   Budow and Noble, P.C., is committed to excellence in the law. All of our attorneys strive to provide unparalleled representation both in and out of the courtroom and we possess extensive experience in a broad range of trial, appellate, class action and administrative matters. We are proud that our partners have devoted most if not all of their professional careers to the firm and serving our clients. In fact, we have enjoyed long lasting relationships with our clients, many of whom we have had the pleasure of serving since the inception of the firm more than 25 years ago.

Budow and Noble, P.C., is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. We also maintain an office in Ellicott City, Maryland. The firm's strong presence throughout the State of Maryland and Washington, D.C., developed as a result of longstanding professional relationships with federal and local courts in these jurisdictions, and the legal community generally. Although regional in focus, Budow and Noble, P.C., has also provided outstanding representation to satisfy the needs of its clients throughout the United States.

The firm is well recognized in the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia as a leader in the insurance law arena, and our attorneys focus on specific practice areas including general insurance liability defense; first-party insurance defense, including arson and insurance fraud; contract disputes, as well as extra-contractual and "bad-faith" litigation; automobile tort defense litigation; malpractice, including medical, legal, architectural and insurance agent defense; products liability defense; workers' compensation defense; officers' and directors' liability defense; and subrogation of all types.

Budow and Noble, P.C., provides quality representation to insurance companies, businesses, self-insured entities, local governments, and private individuals alike. We practice in federal and local courts, where our attorneys have tried many cases of first impression, which decisions have molded and served as cornerstones for common law in both Maryland and the District of Columbia. Several of our attorneys serve as arbitrators and mediators in providing alternative dispute resolution to the community. We are also committed to furthering legal education and hold various classes and seminars for the insurance and self-insurance communities.

Michael J. Budow  Michael J. Budow focuses his practice in all areas of insurance defense work on behalf of national insurance companies as well as the representation of condominium associations, homeowners associations, related officers and directors and management companies for said associations, and extensive trial and appellate experience in these fields, with particular experience in insurance coverage issues.

Mr. Budow has litigated extensively in the areas of “bad-faith,” extra-contractual and class-action lawsuits involving insurance companies. Mr. Budow has also had substantial experience handling large technical subrogation claims for various insurers in State and Federal Court.

Mr. Budow is an original member and organizer of the Maryland State Arson Control Association and has served as Chairman of many of its past programs. He has worked extensively in the field of insurance fraud and arson on behalf of various insurance carriers and has lectured before the Maryland State, Delaware, and Pennsylvania Arson Associations, as well as the Maryland State Bar Association. He has also spoken at numerous arson and fraud seminars for various insurance organizations and claims conferences.

Anne K. Howard, Partner:  Anne K. Howard concentrates her practice on insurance law, including automobile, homeowners and commercial insurance coverage issues. Ms. Howard has extensive litigation practice at both the trial and appellate levels. 

Anne graduated magna cum laude from Boston College in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts. She graduated from the London School of Economics in 1982 with a Masters of Science and received her Juris Doctor with Honors from the University of Maryland in 1987.  She was Editor-in-Chief, Maryland Journal of International Law, 1986-1987.  She is a member of the Montgomery County, Maryland State and District of Columbia Bar Associations.  She is admitted to the bars of Maryland, the District of Columbia, and the United States District Courts for Maryland, District of Columbia and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

J. Charles Szczesny  J. Charles Szczesny's practice focuses on insurance law, litigation, medical issues, and civil mediation with extensive trial practice experience in workers’ compensation defense and automobile insurance, and additional experience in construction litigation, general liability insurance defense and subrogation. He serves as the Chairman of the firm’s Workers’ Compensation Defense Practice Group. Mr. Szczesny is trained and certified as a civil mediator, and is a judicially-appointed Settlement Conference Officer for the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County.

Tammy Darvish, Vice-President of DARCAR Automotive Group: Tammy oversees daily operations of a 30+ dealership group that has close to $1 Billion in annual sales. In a male-dominated industry, Tammy has established herself as an industry leader, advocate, role model, philanthropist, and author—recently co-writing the 423-page book: Outraged: How Detroit and Wall Street Car Czars killed the American Dream

She is the first woman chairperson of WANADA (Wash area New Dealers Association), and has been written about in the Washington Business Journal and Washington Post. She has also testified before congress, and been on CSPAN and CNBC, and recently won the Manheim Auction firm’s Woman of the Year award.

Having risen through the ranks of DARCAR dealership operations (founded by her father, John Darvish), Tammy has often cited her relationship with Main Street customers as being more important than her relationship with the manufacturers.  Whenever you see DARCARS logo on the car in front, you now know who’s the boss!

Bill Cundiff, AAI,AINS began his insurance career as an Allstate retail agent in Fredericksburg VA in 1972.  Since then he has managed independent agencies, owned a general insurance agency and, in 1994, began training and consulting firm.

In recent years, his focus has been on developing training programs using integrated training methods (classroom, internet, self-study, etc.) based on job competency.

Bill’s students have ranged from Hanoi, Vietnam to the Balkans in central Europe.  Bill regularly travels to London where he has developed and led more than 40 workshops focusing on US insurance markets and the American tort system.

Currently Bill is working on a project for the Ministry of Finance in Albania, providing courses in fundamentals of insurance and risk focused supervision.  In cooperation with the Financial Services Volunteer Corps, he is assisting in the planning and development for a regional learning centre in Tirana.

Bill has served on education committees for both PIA of Virginia and IIAV, insurance carrier agent advisory committees and held national offices for the Society of Insurance Trainers and Educators.

Nick Economidis Nick Economidis is a professional liability underwriter for Beazley USA.  Prior to joining Beazley, Nick was the Vice President and Product Manager for Media, Technology and Network Security with AIG Executive Liability.  He has over 20 years of underwriting experience covering everything from workers compensation to professional liability. For the past 10 years, Nick has specialized in underwriting risk for the technology industries and technology related risk issues.

Nick is frequently asked to speak at various industry forums regarding underwriting issues.  In June 2010, Nick was the co-chair of the netDiligence Cyber Risk & Privacy Liability Forum held in Philadelphia, PA. In September 2010, Nick returned for a third consecutive year to co-chair the American Conference Institute Cyber & Data Risk Insurance Conference in New York, NY.

Nick has an Associate in Risk Management designation from the Insurance Institute of America, a B.S. (Marketing) from Rutgers University, and an MBA degree from Villanova University.

Phillip Rager, AIC, Sr. Technical Training Specialist:  Phillip M. Rager is the Senior Technical Training Specialist for the Harleysville Insurance, Flood Department located in Harleysville, Pennsylvania.  Phil teaches flood insurance to agents, producers and adjusters across the Untied States. He is certified as an Instructor in almost all of the required states.  He received his AIC designation in 2001 and his Flood Adjuster certification in 2005 and is currently working on his CPCU designation. 

He has 9 years experience in Flood Insurance and a total of 18 years in the Personal and Commercial lines.  Phil works hard making sure that the Harleysville agents and producers are aware of the many changes in the National Flood Insurance Program. 

VINCENT “CHIP” BOYLAN, CPCU, RPLU.  Chip is a Senior Vice President and Team Leader with Willis of Maryland and has 36 years of experience in the insurance brokerage industry.  Chip has achieved the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Registered Professional Liability Underwriter (RPLU) designations.  Chip has designed and taught insurance and legal continuing education classes and served as Course Leader for sixteen CPCU classes. 

Chip has held a variety of positions with the District of Columbia Chapter of the Society of CPCU, including President and Education Director.  He is currently the Chairman of the Governing Committee of the CPCU Society’s Coverage, Litigators, Educators and Witnesses (CLEW) interest group and has served on the committee since 1999.

From 2005 through 2011, Chip was a board member of the Insurance Agents & Brokers (IA&B) of Maryland and IA&B Service Group and Chairman of the Board of IA&B of Maryland in 2008-2009.

Kevin C. Wilkes 

Kevin is the Security Practice Leader, Security Risk Consulting, Strategic Outcomes Practice for Willis North America.   As the practice leader for the Security Risk Consulting group, Kevin conducts workplace investigative inquiries and routinely offers his many years of experience, knowledge, and training in law enforcement and investigations to clients.  In this capacity he conducts complex workplace investigations, travel safety and security awareness training, corporate internal investigations, workplace violence/harassment investigations, threat analysis, security reviews, and facility vulnerability assessments. 

Kevin joined Willis in 2005 after serving 17 years as a detective with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police.  During his law enforcement career, Kevin investigated thousands of criminal offenses.  In addition, he participated in many high-risk arrests and successfully conducted hundreds of one-on-one interviews with criminals, determining cause and motive.  As a decorated member of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, Kevin spent much of his career serving as the City of Pittsburgh’s liaison with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) operating as a Special Federal Officer with a Top Secret security clearance, investigating organized crime rings, violent offenders and criminal racketeering enterprises.

Kevin also served as a Special Deputy United States Marshall while on the Greater Pittsburgh Fugitive Task Force responsible for investigating and arresting the area’s most wanted local, state and federal felons.  As a member of the Pittsburgh Police crisis negotiating team and a certified instructor at the Pittsburgh Police Academy for over 4 years, Kevin taught courses in stalking, survival tactics, terrorism and critical incident management.