Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A. Shareholder David M. Aafedt practices administrative and regulatory law, health law, and regulated industries law. He represents clients before state and federal regulators, legislative bodies and courts across all 50 states in matters involving regulatory compliance, market conduct examinations, enforcement actions, investigations and unclaimed property audits.

He began his career as an assistant attorney general in the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, where he served as counsel to the Minnesota Department of Commerce and Department of Health.

Representative matters include securing a $5.2 million recovery against the State of Minnesota and its workers’ compensation regulator for erroneous premium assessments, obtaining a $5 million recovery for dental clinics wrongfully excluded from Minnesota’s Critical Access Program, and successfully challenging an unpromulgated Minnesota Department of Commerce and Department of Health rule governing health insurer premium payment obligations.

Aafedt serves as chair of the board of directors of the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota and as a member of the firm’s board of directors.

Larkin Hoffman Shareholder Matthew W. Bergeron practices at the intersection of health care law and government relations, representing health care and human service providers, small businesses, trade and professional associations, local governments and multinational corporations at the Minnesota Capitol.
His government relations work spans health and human services, agriculture, state and local taxes, insurance, employment regulations and capital investment financing. Notable achievements include securing passage of a first-in-the-nation tax credit for beginning farmers, securing more than $8 million in state bonding funds for a nonprofit facility expansion in southeastern Minnesota, and successfully restoring eligibility and funding for chemical dependency treatment rate enhancements for seven Minnesota providers.
Bergeron also advises clients on campaign finance and election law matters and assists real estate developers in navigating land use approvals. He serves as vice president and board member of Vinland National Center and as a board member of the Macalester College Alumni Board.

Sonnie Elliott is senior vice president in the Public Affairs Strategies Group at Taft, where she draws on decades of experience working with clients, lawmakers, elected officials and coalitions at the local, state and federal levels. She develops government relations strategies to help clients advance policy goals and secure government contracts, frequently working with state agency staff and elected officials to pass or amend legislation that creates or expands contracting opportunities.
Elliott’s public sector career included senior roles in both the Minnesota Senate and House of Representatives before she joined the office of Gov. Arne Carlson, where she served as deputy director for Cabinet affairs, advising the governor on legislative issues and lobbying legislators on behalf of the administration.
She is a board member and past president of the Minnesota Government Relations Council and a founding member of the National League of Women Lobbyists. Elliott frequently speaks to businesses, health care organizations, nonprofits, trade associations and Policy Fellows at the University of Minnesota’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance on public policy and Minnesota politics.

H. Theodore Grindal is the partner in charge of government relations at Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP, where he has led the firm’s government relations practice for more than 35 years.

Grindal began his career as a special assistant attorney general in the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office before joining LGN. His notable legislative achievements include serving as principal lobbyist for passage of the Freedom to Breathe Act, which prohibited smoking in public places including businesses and restaurants, and securing passage of legislation authorizing a new hospital in Maple Grove that resulted in a joint venture between Fairview and North Memorial hospitals. He has also represented tribal governments, including the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, on natural resources, health care and gaming issues.

Grindal serves on the board of directors of ForeUs, formerly the Minnesota Minority Junior Golf Association. He is a member of the Minnesota Government Relations Council, the American Health Lawyers Association and the American Society of Medical Association Counsel.

Nancy Haas is an attorney and co-founder of Poul Government Relations, where she focuses on government relations and public policy after a 26-year career spanning the public and private sectors. Her legislative practice covers public safety and criminal justice, judiciary, health care, energy, capital investment, tax, and municipal and public finance, with representation before the Minnesota Legislature as well as federal and municipal governments.

Haas began her career as a committee administrator to the Minnesota House of Representatives Judiciary Finance Committee and later served as rules coordinator and legislative liaison to the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training. She subsequently served as legislative liaison with the Minnesota Department of Commerce and as deputy chief of staff and intergovernmental relations director to St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly. Among her career highlights, Haas served as lead lobbyist for the passage of marriage equality in Minnesota.

She currently serves as vice president of the Minnesota Government Relations Council, chairs the Ramsey County Charter Commission, serves on the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce board.

Poul Haas Government Relations co-owner Thomas J. Poul brings three decades of public policy experience to legal and legislative representation before the Minnesota Legislature, state agencies and the executive branch. His practice spans health care, education, tax policy, insurance, municipal and public finance and technology, with additional experience in capital investment, transportation, energy, commerce and procurement.

Poul began his career in Washington, D.C., with Congressman Bill Frenzel and served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable James Campbell. He subsequently held legal and legislative leadership roles with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry and the Office of the State Auditor before spending 25 years at Messerli Kramer, where he served as shareholder, government relations division chair and a member of the board of directors. Among his career highlights, Poul supported passage of some of Minnesota’s most high-profile legislation, including the Minnesota Twins ballpark, the Hiawatha Light Rail Transit project, marriage equality legislation and CHS Field for the St. Paul Saints.

Poul is a member of the Minnesota State Bar Association and Ramsey County Bar Association.

John Reich, a senior principal at Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies, brings more than 17 years of experience across the public and private sectors to government relations work spanning health care, insurance, banking, energy, gaming, telecommunications and business regulation.
Reich began his career in the Minnesota House of Representatives before joining the Minnesota Department of Commerce as director of government affairs, where he advised the commissioner on legislative matters affecting insurance, securities, banking and utility regulation. He later played a pivotal role in establishing MNsure, Minnesota’s health insurance marketplace, first serving as the agency’s public relations officer — leading the lobbying effort to pass the landmark legislation creating the marketplace — and later as director of government relations, serving as the agency’s chief lobbyist and managing all legislative strategy.
He subsequently served as director of government relations at a Minneapolis law firm before joining Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies, where he represents clients navigating complex legislative and regulatory environments at the Minnesota Capitol.

Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP Partner David Zoll specializes in complex litigation and appeals with a focus on environmental, business, constitutional and political law. He represents governmental entities, businesses and political organizations in high-profile matters before state and federal courts.

His representative matters include defending the Metropolitan Council in litigation challenging environmental review for the Southwest Light Rail Transit project, representing the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in a challenge to environmental review for the Line 3 Replacement Project, and representing Minnesota DFL legislators before the Minnesota Supreme Court in a quorum dispute over the Minnesota House’s ability to conduct business.

Zoll serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, where he teaches an Advanced Environmental Law seminar. He previously chaired both the Environmental Law Section of the Hennepin County Bar Association and the Minnesota State Bar Association’s Environmental, Natural Resources and Energy Law Section.