Kelsey Griswold-Berger*

Government Relations Director

Kelsey advises a broad range of clients on legislative and regulatory matters across a variety of issues including trade, tax, health, education, and appropriations.

Kelsey Griswold-Berger Portrait

Utilizing her 13 years of Congressional staff experience and nearly three years at ArentFox Schiff, Kelsey helps a broad range of corporate, trade association, and nonprofit clients navigate Washington and achieve their goals. She thrives on advocating for client priorities, assisting clients with fine-tuning their government relations strategies with attention to detail, and activating her bipartisan network in support of client objectives.

Since joining ArentFox Schiff, Kelsey has helped clients build and maintain relationships with key Members of Congress and staff, committees, Congressional leadership, and several Executive Branch agencies. From executing fly-ins to developing consensus amongst stakeholders for advancing priorities through the legislative process to prepping C-suite executives before key meetings, Kelsey is an active collaborator for firm clients. With particular insight into Congressional Republicans, clients seek her counsel as they develop and implement their policy strategies. Kelsey’s breadth of policy experience includes successfully advocating for a flawed Medicare payment policy to be withdrawn; for a client to receive a refund from Customs related to tariff policy; and for the inclusion of favorable appropriations funding levels and bill language.

*Kelsey is not a member of the legal practice.

Previous Work

Kelsey spent nearly 13 years on Capitol Hill, in both the House and Senate, working for Republicans from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Iowa. She spent five of those years in a Legislative Director role, leading teams and managing countless policy projects. She has a deep working knowledge across an array of legislative issues and worked directly with committees such as the Senate Finance Committee, Senate HELP Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee, and House Ways and Means Committee.

In 2025, Kelsey worked as Senior Policy Advisor to newly elected Senator Dave McCormick (R-PA). In this role, Kelsey counseled the Senator on health, education, labor, and appropriations matters including establishing his first appropriations request process and advising on significant changes to Medicaid financing and federal student aid in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 

Immediately prior to joining ArentFox Schiff in 2023, Kelsey served on the staff of Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), where she primarily worked on trade and tax issues to support the Senator’s role on the Finance Committee, as well as commerce and judiciary issues. In this role, Kelsey advised the Senator as the Senate considered the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as advocated on the Senator’s behalf to advance his final priorities including but not limited to the College Savings Recovery Act. 

Before joining Senator Burr’s staff, Kelsey served as Legislative Director to U.S. Congressman Christopher Smith (R-NJ), where she covered appropriations, environment, health, judiciary, labor, tax, and trade issues while managing the legislative staff, coordinating Smith’s position on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and advising on all votes taken by the House. Kelsey worked to advance Smith’s priorities through the legislative process on diverse issues such as global health and human rights, lead service line replacement, rideshare safety, and reauthorizing public health activities, as well as appropriations requests and NDAA amendments. She is especially proud of her work on the Autism CARES Act of 2019. Navigating a diverse coalition of stakeholders, Kelsey helped secure a timely reauthorization, ensuring continued research on early interventions and services to families and individuals making the transition to adulthood.

A proud native of Upstate New York, upon graduating from the University of Rochester in 2011, Kelsey joined the staff of her hometown Congressman, Tom Reed (R-NY), where over the course of four years she progressed from Staff Assistant to Legislative Assistant.

Life Beyond the Law

Outside of work, Kelsey enjoys being in nature gardening, hiking, and diving, as well as spending time with her husband, Ryan, and their rescue pups. A lifelong musician, Kelsey plays the viola with the Capital City Symphony.

 

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