Attorneys of the Year: Janel Dressen

As a prominent business litigator, Janel Dressen is living her dream.

“I declared in the second grade that I wanted to go to law school,” recalled Dressen, now a shareholder at Anthony Ostlund Baer & Louwagie.  “It is something that has been a long-held passion for me.”

Today, 20 years into her legal career, Dressen finds satisfaction representing clients in a variety of business and employment disputes, including cases where families and small companies are mired in ownership conflicts.

In 2017, Dressen’s biggest legal victory came in the ownership buyout dispute involving the Twin Cities-based Lunds supermarket company. Following a lengthy legal battle and a five-day trial, a Hennepin County judge awarded Kim Lund $45.2 million as the price that her brother, Tres Lund, and various Lund’s entities must pay her over time to buy out her interest in the business.

“Every time I help a family or business resolve an ownership dispute, that is pretty significant,” she said. “Because of the nature of the law and the disputes, I get to know my clients on many levels. I like to get close to my clients and get to know them and help them solve something meaningful to their lives,” Dressen says.