Jennifer A. Thompson

Focused Practice

Jennifer’s legal practice involves assisting clients on bidding, contracting, and claims prosecution for both public and private projects. This work involves such matters as advising and counseling clients on issues of government contracting, including procurement and government regulations. Jennifer has experience in surety work, mechanic’s lien claims, construction defects, and construction contract disputes.

Jennifer’s practice includes both transactional matters (including negotiating and drafting multiple types of agreements) and litigation. Jennifer has handled numerous matters through litigation and arbitration. This experience has also provided her with invaluable insight for the real estate and construction contract drafting and negotiation work that she also performs.

Jennifer also has extensive experience representing homeowners and homeowner associations in construction defect, payment disputes, mechanic’s lien claims, disclosure issues, and residential real estate and construction transactions.  Jennifer secured a significant victory for a client at the Minnesota Court of Appeals, who reversed the district court’s summary judgment order dismissing the client’s multi-million dollar construction defect claim.  Jennifer often represents homeowner associations and homeowners in matters relating to governance, dues collection, and rules enforcement.

Smart, Clear Counsel

Jennifer is the legal advisor to the Association of Women Contractors (AWC) and takes great pride in her work representing women-owned construction businesses in matters relating to WBE, DBE, and MBE certifications, as well as other construction and business matters.  Jennifer enjoys working as a teammate with her clients to find creative and practical solutions for legal issues.

Jennifer’s practice also involves representation of non-profit associations in their litigation, corporate, and business matters. Through this work, Jennifer has gained extensive experience in, among other things, communicating complex legal issues to non-lawyers, providing training and education to boards of directors, and assisting clients in creating and implementing policies and regulations.

Leader in the Industry

Jennifer is a leader in the legal profession, currently serving as the Treasurer of the Minnesota State Bar Association (MSBA). She is the Chair of the MSBA Membership Committee and a member of the MSBA Council and Assembly. Jennifer is also a past-Chair of the Construction Law Section of the MSBA.

Jennifer was a selected participant in the inaugural year of the Minnesota Women Lawyers (MWL) Leadership Project: A Core Development Program for Women Attorneys, and she participated in two follow-up years of MWL leadership training. Previously, Jennifer was appointed by former Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak as an Attorney Commissioner to the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission. In that position, Jennifer served a term as the Vice Chair of the Commission, as well as sat on the Contract Compliance Committee.

Jennifer is very proudly a volunteer attorney for the Children’s Law Center, where she provides legal representation to children who are wards of the state.