Ann-Therese Schmid practices in the area of transportation public policy and regulation and infrastructure procurement. Ms. Schmid has been working in the transportation industry for nine years and has experience working with highway and rail transit contracts and policies and major structures and passenger rail projects. She has developed policies and legislation for major public transportation programs. Ms. Schmid has also drafted consulting, construction, inter-agency and joint powers agreements for major infrastructure projects. She has extensive experience with Design-Build (DB), Construction Management (CM), and other innovative contracts for transportation projects, having worked on numerous procurements.
Prior to entering private practice, Ms. Schmid worked for the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT), ending her tenure with the agency working as the Chief of Staff for Passenger Rail Transit with Mn/DOT’s Office of Passenger Rail Transit (OPRT), which was created to respond to a growing need for multi-modal transportation solutions in the State of Minnesota. The office was tasked with project oversight for seven commuter rail corridors in the state, future Light Rail Transit (LRT) design and construction projects, inter-state high-speed rail initiatives, and future bus rapid transit projects in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Ms. Schmid provided legal, legislative, policy, and administrative guidance and support to Mn/DOT’s rail transit program. She managed and coordinated contracts necessary to implement a passenger rail transit system in the State of Minnesota, including, compliance with state and federal procurement procedures, ethics rules, and conflict of interest laws. She also assisted the Mn/DOT legislative staff in reviewing proposed legislation affecting all rail transit and contracting laws that pertained to the department and in drafting proposed legislation on behalf of the department.
After her employment with Mn/DOT, Ms. Schmid worked with the engineering consulting firm Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) in its Design-Build Resource Center. While with PB, Ms. Schmid provided innovative contracting expertise to a variety of public sector clients, including advising highway, transit, and structures projects.