Foley & Lardner LLP is pleased to announce that public affairs directors Dennis Cardoza, Katie Schoettler, Jennifer Walsh, and special counsel John Strom are recognized by The Hill as 2025 Top Lobbyists.
This list honors lobbyists that have achieved measurable impact on the development of policy and politics across corporations, small businesses, local governments, nonprofits, unions, and trade associations.
“The lobbyists on this list represent the industry’s savviest, most influential and well-connected advocates across Capitol Hill,” The Hill writes.
Cardoza, a former five-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives, serves as co-chair of Foley’s Federal Public Affairs Practice and chair of the firm’s California Public Affairs Practice. Wielding extensive policy experience with respect to water resource, banking, housing, infrastructure, energy, agriculture, education, foreign affairs, and health care issues, Cardoza advises a broad range of clients on legislative, regulatory, and public policy and advocacy matters.
Before joining Foley, Katie Schoettler served as communications director and senior advisor to U.S. Senator Steve Daines for many years, prior to which she worked for the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee. She has significant ties to Congress and the administration, including within the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Interior, and Energy.
John Strom served as committee staff in both the U.S. House and Senate and was a senior political appointee in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the first Trump administration. He has significant ties throughout the Trump administration and with congressional Republicans and conservative think tanks in Washington, D.C.
Jennifer Walsh offers over 30 years of experience in leadership roles in both government and the private sector. She honed her skills as a senior democratic congressional staffer for over sixteen years, during which time she served as a principal liaison with multiple presidential administrations and the U.S. House and Senate. She expanded her policy experience and relationships while serving as vice president for federal government affairs at a top Fortune 500 company. Walsh has secured legislative and regulatory wins for a variety of clients during her ten years with Foley.
Foley’s Public Policy and Government Relations group provides services covering the full spectrum of public policy, combining comprehensive counsel with proficiency in government relations, political law, strategic positioning, and communications with the practice of law, when needed. The firm’s bipartisan public affairs team, which includes former members of Congress, Chiefs of Staff, committee staff, agency regulators, and grassroots advocacy professionals, has decades of experience advocating on behalf of our clients at the federal level with Congress and the Administration.
Protecting the needs and interests of our clients in the public arena is demanding and requires focused discipline and strategic counsel. Foley’s team brings diverse experience and deep knowledge as well as responsive and creative business solutions in representing our clients federally, in discrete states, and in coordinated national campaigns to achieve clients’ goals simultaneously on the federal, state, and local levels.
