David McLaughlin has been practicing law since 1981. He practiced with a firm in Mankato for three years and began practicing in Ortonville in 1984. Since 1987, his practice has focused almost primarily on farm debtors/creditors.

He received his law degree (J.D.) from William Mitchell College of law in 1981. He has a B.S. in social sciences education from the University of Minnesota Duluth. He grew up on a farm in rural Ortonville and is a graduate of Ortonville High School. He served in the Navy from 1969 to 1973.

Dave finds a great deal of satisfaction in working out financial resolutions that allow farmers to keep operating. He has resolved debt disputes involving a number of area banks, Commodity Credit, Farmers Home Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the State of Minnesota, and other creditors. The debt situations have been resolved through negotiations, or, when necessary, bankruptcy filings. He has used Chapters 7, 12 and 11 to protect his clients' interests. "The vast majority of my clients are still actively engaged in farming," he said.

He recalls working on a case until 11:00 one New Year's Eve to save a family's farm. "There's nothing more gratifying than seeing the look in my clients' faces when they're able to keep their farms," he said.

David also acts as general counsel for Western Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, which is a municipal corporation and political subdivision of the State of Minnesota organized for the purpose of acquiring and the ownership of power supply projects and sale of Western Minnesota entitlement to Western Minnesota and Missouri River Energy Service member cities. There are 23 member cities of Western Minnesota, including Ortonville and Elbow Lake other cities include Alexandria, Detroit Lakes, Worthington, Moorhead and Staples. MRES has 57 member cities in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota. Western Minnesota owns a share in Laramie River Station, a peaking plant in Watertown, South Dakota and Eira. In addition, Western Minnesota owns the Wind Generating Facility. In 2002, Western Minnesota had total revenues of approximately $54,000,000.00. Western Minnesota recently sold revenue bonds totaling $90,295,000.00. Dave has also been the city attorney for the City of Ortonville for about 10 years. He has also represented Marshall Municipal Utilities on special matters.

Dave was a member of Jaycees and has served as president of  his church. He has also been active in the Democratic party in the area.

He and his wife, Patti, live in Ortonville with their four children.

MIKE FLUEGEL is a litigation (trial) attorney with extremely broad experience.  Having practiced law in Western Minnesota for over 25 years, he has handled disputes in all of the following areas, including settled cases, court and jury trials in State and Federal Courts:

•   Farm Chemical Crop Damage Claims;
•   Defective Seed Claims;
•   Boundary Disputes – Lakeshore, Farm & Residential;
•   Landowner Condemnation (Eminent Domain) Cases Involving Highways and Pipelines;
•   Shareholder Disputes
•   Construction/Contract Disputes
•   Creditor and Property Owner Mechanics Lien Foreclosures;
•   Estate Contests Involving Will and Trust Interpretation, Undue Influence and Testamentary Capacity;
•   Legal and Accountant Malpractice;
•   Employment Law (Sexual Harassment, Age, Sex, and Disability Discrimination);
•   Insurance Coverage Claims by Policyholders Against Insurance Companies (Property, Damage, Liability and Fire  Losses)
•   Auto Accident, Farm Accident, Liquor Liability and Wrongful Death by Electrocution and Drowning;


Fee arrangements can be either hourly or contingent.  Contingent fee arrangements with no recovery result in no fee.

Undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota - Morris, 1973; law degree (JD) from William Mitchell College of Law, 1977; admitted to practice in State and Federal District Courts, 1977.

Practice focus is civil litigation with an emphasis in the following areas:
 

Personal injury, including automobile and farm accidents, dram shop and products liability

Wrongful death

Malpractice

Insurance claims

Farm crop damage, including defective seed or negligent spray claims

Contract claims

Estate and will contests

Condemnation

Recovered millions of dollars through jury verdicts and settlements.

Fee arrangements can be either hourly or contingent.  No charge for first conference.  If no recovery in contingent fee case, then no fee.

Paul Brutlag brings a strong agriculture background to his practice of law. He grew up on his family’s farm outside of Wendell, where he has been farming since he completed college in 1969. As a veteran farmer, he attended law school and received his law degree (J.D.) in 1990 from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul. He is currently involved in his family’s sugar beet, wheat, soybean, and corn farming operation in conjunction with his law practice.

Since 1990 he has practiced law in Elbow Lake with Helseth & Brutlag Chartered. He has concentrated in agriculture law; administrative law issues such as wetlands, employment regulations and utilities; governmental relations; and business/corporate/ cooperative law as it applies to farms and small businesses. He is a member of the bar in Minnesota, North Dakota, and the District of Columbia. He has been trained in divorce mediation at the Erickson Mediation Institute in the Twin Cities.

Paul has a B.S. degree in agriculture economics form the University of Minnesota, with a minor in mathematics and statistics. He is a graduate of Elbow-Wendell High School. For 12 years he served as lobbyist and agency liaison representative for the Minnesota Sugar Beet Growers and the 1979 he was selected as Minnesota’s Outstanding Young Farmer by the Minnesota Jaycees.

Paul’s continuing involvement in farming provides him with firsthand experience in the organization and operation of family businesses and in such farm program concerns as payment limitations, “swampbuster,” wetlands and other ASCS and SCS issues. He enjoys working with farmers on their business organization plans. “I see my role as a counselor in a lot of cases,” he said. “I’m one of the management team members a farmer or small business person needs.”

Since 1985 Paul has been president of the board of Runestone Telephone Association in Hoffman, which, along with its subsidiary, Runestone Cellular and Communications, Inc., provides telephone, cable television, and other communication services to 10 communities in Grant, Traverse, Douglas, Stevens, and Wilkin counties

He has served on a number of committees in diverse areas, including an agriculture/wetlands advisory committee for U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger, a hunger task force of the American Lutheran Church, and the Governor’s Task Force on Workers’ Right to Know. In 1992 he was appointed by Gov. Arne Carlson to the Minnesota Wetlands Heritage Advisory Committee.

Paul and his wife, Gwen, who is a licensed psychologist at the Medical Arts Clinic in Elbow Lake, live in rural Wendell with their two children. He is a licensed pilot, has a lighter-than-air balloon certificate, and owns and operates an antique steam engine.

Dennis has been  practicing law in Elbow Lake since 1975. His current emphasis is in real estate, estate planning, probate and trust administration, and municipal law. He also continues, in the general practice of law.

He has been active in civic and community affairs serving as an officer and director of the Civic and Commerce Association, Tipsinah Mounds Golf Course Lions, and his church.

Originally from Richfield, Dennis graduated from St. Olaf College in 1970. After 2 years in the U.S. Army, he graduated with honors from Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio in 1975. Dennis and his wife, Sandy, have two children and two grandchildren.

Germain (Jerry) Kunz has been practicing law in Ortonville since 1972. Jerry works out of both the Ortonville and Morris Office. He brings a diverse background to his practice of law, having served as a Catholic Priest in New Ulm and Graceville before he decided to change careers and enter law school. His law practice has emphasized wills, probate, estate planning, real estate, and medical assistance planning.

Jerry received his law degree (J.D.) from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1972. He has a B.A. in philosophy, with a secondary teaching certificate, and an M.A. in history, both from the St. Paul Seminary. He also has one year of training in clinical psychology from St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. He was born and raised in the rural Scott County (Minnesota) community of St. Benedict, where his parents ran the community store. He received his high school education at Nazareth Hall, a preparatory seminary school in the St. Paul area.

Jerry enjoys the interesting people he has met through his law practice and the quality of life and rural setting provides.

He is a skilled speaker and writer and has been active both professionally and in the communities of Graceville and Ortonville. He served as president of the Sixteenth Judicial District Bar Association. He has conducted estate planning seminars and medical assistance seminars for community education classes throughout Big Stone County.

Jerry headed committees that built a hospital in Graceville and a nursing home in Ortonville, served three terms as president of his parish council, has been president of Ortonville Civic and Commerce Association and the Kiwanis Club, started the Graceville Service Club, and is a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Aid Association. He has provided volunteer legal services for a number of organizations, including the Browns Valley Town and Country Club, the Monarch Heights home for the developmentally disabled, local housing and Redevelopment Authorities, the Graceville Golf Club, an Ortonville teen center, several area churches, and the Bonanza Environmental center, a new interpretive nature center.

He and his wife, Pat, live in Ortonville, where she is an active keyboard musician for a variety of churches and community organizations.

Robert Dalager has been practicing law in Morris since 1977. He was a solo practitioner for two years, until he joined the practice of Michael Fluegel and Warrenn Anderson in 1979. He served for a short time as Morris City Attorney and Assistant Stevens County Attorney in the early 1980's. Since then the emphasis in his practice has been family law and criminal defense.

He received his law degree (J.D.) from the William Mitchell College of Law in 1977. He has a B.A. degree in philosophy from the University of Minnesota-Morris, and did post-graduate work in philosophy of law at the University of Minnesota. A native of Morris, he graduated from Morris High School as class valedictorian.

His first civil jury trial remains one of his favorite cases. He won a judgment for a client whose property was stolen while it was being stored by another person. In addition to trial litigation, he has represented the prevailing party in several leading family law cases at the appellate level, including Olsen, Landa and Buntje.

He has been a member of the same church for 45 years, during which time he has served as a Church Council member and President of the church congregation. An avid outdoorsman, Bob is a member of Pheasants Forever, the National Wild Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited, Quail Unlimited and National Shoot-to-Retrieve Association. He has served as National President of Pheasants Forever and has been active in the local chapter, as well. He has been a Little League coach, Boy Scout advisor and Girl Scout troop sponsor. He has served on the Morris Planning Commission and was a director of Pomme de Terre Golf Course and of the 9-F Sportsmen's Club. He has sung in his church choir since his teens, has also sang in a barbershop choir, been a Mason and a Shriner.

Bob and his wife, Victoria, live in Morris and have raised two children. Victoria is an active community volunteer, a licensed daycare provider, and she and Bob have been foster parents since 1979. Bob enjoys running and training field trial dogs and hunting waterfowl and upland game.