Tuft, Lach, Jerabek & O’Connell, PLLC is proud to highlight the following attorneys recognized as 2025 Minnesota Super Lawyers® and Rising Stars:
Thomas Tuft is a shareholder at Tuft, Lach, Jerabek & O’Connell, PLLC practicing in all areas of family law, including complex divorce, spousal maintenance, paternity, child custody, child support, and alternative dispute resolution, including mediation, arbitration, and early neutral evaluations.
Thomas W. Tuft
Shareholder Attorney/Mediator
John Jerabek is an advocate for his clients in intricate grandparent custody and third-party custody proceedings, as well as juvenile court contested adoption matters. He represents clients in family court and juvenile court appeals.
John M. Jerabek
Shareholder Attorney/Mediator
Named Minneapolis Area “Lawyer of the Year” four times from 2015 – 2021 for Family Law or Family Law Mediation by Best Lawyers in America, Dan O’Connell has been guiding clients through the legal system for 30 years.
Dan C. O’Connell
Shareholder Attorney/Mediator
Ms. Van Ert has broad experience in the areas of family law, probate, guardianships and estate planning. Additionally, she is a Rule 114 qualified neutral and enjoys helping parties reach creative solutions.
Letty M-S Van Ert
Shareholder Attorney/Mediator
Lindsey O’Connell is a shareholder and practices primarily in the area of family law and does mediations, early neutral evaluations, and parenting consulting. Lindsey’s background and training gives her a distinctive perspective in working with families going through a variety of family transitions.
Lindsey O’Connell
Shareholder Attorney/Mediator
Alexandra Connell is a shareholder at Tuft, Lach, Jerabek & O’Connell, PLLC. Alexandra is a zealous advocate for her clients in all areas of family law, including but not limited to high asset, complex, and simple divorce, post-divorce, custody, and domestic abuse cases.
Alexandra L. Michelson
Shareholder Attorney/Mediator
James Street, as a retired Family Court Referee, has presided over 2,500 family law proceedings over 12 years. This experience positions him to provide insightful evaluative mediation, moderate settlement conferences, and serve as a special master or consensual special magistrate.
James J. Street
Shareholder Attorney/Mediator
Christopher Vatsaas practices in family law including divorce, child custody, asset and debt division, spousal maintenance, and child support. He is an Adjunct Professor of Advance Family Law at St. Thomas School of Law.
Christopher Vatsaas
Shareholder Attorney/Mediator
Allyson is an Associate Attorney at Tuft, Lach, Jerabek & O’Connell and practices in the area of family law. She understands the difficult issues families may encounter and is ready to advocate and provide guidance to her clients.
Allyson Kerr
Attorney/Mediator
Anna Street is an Associate Attorney at Tuft, Lach, Jerabek & O’Connell, PLLC and has extensive litigation experience in both family law and housing law. She was previously employed by Central Minnesota Legal Services and currently serves on the Board of Directors for The Listening House, a non-profit organization.
Anna G. Street
Attorney
Melanie Nelson works in all areas of family law. Prior to joining our firm Melanie was an associate attorney at a mid-sized Minnesota law firm and a law clerk to a referee in Ramsey County Family Court.
Melanie I. Nelson
Attorney
We extend a special congratulations to Dan O’Connell for being selected to the Super Lawyers list for 30 Consecutive Years.
*Super Lawyer and Rising Star attorneys are selected using a multi-phase process, including nomination, independent research, peer evaluation and professional achievement. Only 5% of those attorneys nominated are ultimately named to the list of Super Lawyers and only 2.5% attorneys (age 40 or younger and in practice 10 years or less) are selected to the Rising Stars List. These designations place our attorneys at Tuft, Lach, s
