Heather Q. Hostetter

Ms. Hostetter was first admitted to the practice of law in Maryland in 1995. After her service as an Assistant Public Defender for the State of Maryland from 1995-2000, she decided to use her litigation experience to focus her practice solely on family law — primarily, but not exclusively, on the issues of custody, support, and property allocation. Ms. Hostetter founded Hostetter Strent LLC in 2012 with Amy Strent. Ms. Hostetter and the entire firm strive to provide excellence in the law and service to their clients. 

Ms. Hostetter has been recognized many times for her work in the domestic relations field. Ms. Hostetter was first named in Washingtonian Magazine’s list of Washington’s top family law attorneys in February 2004, in its list of top 40 attorneys under the age of 40 in July 2006, and in its list of the eminent divorce lawyers in the D.C. metro area regularly since 2007. For several years running, she has also been included in the annual list of best family law attorneys by Bethesda Magazine, the annual editions of Best Lawyers in America (Family Law) and has been recognized in Maryland’s and D.C.'s Super Lawyers Magazine lists of Top 100 attorneys and Top 50 women attorneys. Since 2017, she has been recognized as a Top 10 Attorney in Maryland Super Lawyers Magazine (and ranked no.1 in 2022), and in 2021 and 2022, she was selected as a Top 10 Attorney in DC Super Lawyers Magazine. Further, she was admitted to the prestigious American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers in 2012, and the International Academy of Family Lawyers in 2013, for which she is the current President-Elect. Ms. Hostetter was the co-recipient of the Foundation of the Bar Association of Montgomery County’s Andrew L. Sonner Excellence in Diversity Award for the 2019-2020 year. In May of 2022, she was honored with the Bar Association of Montgomery County, Maryland’s Annual Professionalism Award, and the Foundation of the Bar Association of Montgomery County, Maryland’s Community Service Award. Most recently, she was distinguished in The Best Lawyers of America as a 2024 Family Law “Lawyer of the Year,” in family law mediation.

 She is a member of the Maryland State Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, and the Massachusetts State Bar. In addition, Ms. Hostetter is an active participant in the Montgomery County Bar Association as a member, leader, and continuing legal education lecturer. She is a past President of the Association (2019-2020 – the 9th woman to hold this position) and the Association’s Foundation (2020-2021), has been a past co-chair of the Association’s Family Law Section (2003-2004), is a current member of the Association’s Racial Justice Council, and was the President of the Montgomery County Chapter of the Women’s Bar Association from 2006 through 2007. She was a founding member of the Maryland Chapter of the Storybook Project, which enables inmate mothers and their children to stay in touch by providing the children with a tape recording of the mother reading her child a story. 

She completed the Six Year Law Program at Boston University where she simultaneously earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, summa cum laude, and a Juris Doctor degree in 1995. She is also a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.

Ms. Hostetter is a compassionate, patient, energetic, and hardworking advocate for her clients. Her clients are comforted by her attention to detail and grace under pressure. She is skilled at all methods of dispute resolution — negotiation, mediation, collaborative law, and litigation — to achieve the best results for her clients.