Role

David, in partnership with his wife Sue, is the owner of the Goodfriend Group. A veteran of DC, David has had substantial experience in the executive and legislative branches and leverages his longstanding relationships to help advance your cause. Heralded for his outside-the-box thinking, David guides the rest of the team in developing the most creative and effective strategies for advocacy. 

Background and Education

David Goodfriend is President of Goodfriend Group and Of Counsel to the law firm of Weiner Brodsky Kider PC in Washington, D.C. He is founder and Chairman of the non-profit consumer advocacy group, Sports Fans Coalition. He served as Deputy Staff Secretary to President William Jefferson Clinton; professional staff member to congressional committees chaired by Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Charles B. Rangel (D-NY); and Media Legal Advisor to Commissioner Susan Ness at the Federal Communications Commission.

In the private sector, David was Vice President of Law and Public Policy at DISH Network and co-founder, EVP and General Counsel of Air America Radio. He has served as co-chairman of the Federal Communications Bar Association Legislation Committee and currently serves on the Washington Center for Technology Policy Inclusion Board of Directors. David was named by Multichannel News as one of the "40 under 40" and by Broadcasting & Cable as a "Fifth Estater." In 2018, David launched Locast.org, a non-profit streaming service providing access to local broadcast TV stations. David is a frequent contributor to MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News, Al Jazeera America, and Sirius/XM. He also created and co-hosted for eight years "Left Jab" on Sirius/XM. 

David received his J.D., cum laude, from The Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as an editor of the American Criminal Law Review, and his B.A, summa cum laude, from Beloit College. He is an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law and George Washington University Law School in Communications and Technology Policy.

Sue founded Emmer Consulting more than 20 years ago. In that time she has carved out a reputation for advocating for people and causes that have far too little representation in Washington, DC. These voices include hospice patients, child cancer survivors, and people living with Alzheimer’s. Emmer Consulting has grown to also represent technology, telecommunications, and labor groups through its subsidiary, The Goodfriend Group, which has positioned the firm to be especially influential on the telehealth issues.

Sue started her career on Capitol Hill where she quickly rose to senior advisor positions. From 1988 to 1994, Sue served in key roles on Capitol Hill. She was a Legislative Assistant for Senator Don Riegle who served on the Senate Finance Committee. In this capacity, she focused on issues involving Medicaid and the Vaccines for Children Program. Prior to that time, she was a Legislative Assistant for Senator Bob Graham. In the Graham office, Sue worked on a number of key health initiatives including Medicare, Medicaid and appropriations issues. She wrote the Medicaid provider tax legislation which was a hallmark of Senator Graham’s early 1990s health care agenda.

She staffed both Senators Reigle and Graham during health reform efforts and during key events such as Senate Finance Committee mark ups, Senate Aging Committee hearings, and Senate floor consideration of legislation. Sue travelled with Senator Graham and Hillary Clinton as part of the Clinton health reform initiative and served on the President’s task force in that regard. She worked specifically on several items that were enacted into law, such as the Vaccine for Children program, provider tax legislation and a program for blind veterans.

After leaving Capitol Hill, Sue was a Legislative Representative at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association in 1994. In this position, she worked on federal advocacy and policy development.

Sue also served as a health policy analyst at the Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Legislation (ASL) office for two years from 1994 through 1996. In this role, she worked on Medicare issues with a focus on Medicare Part A. Sue developed a strong understanding of how the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulatory process functions and established deep relationships with key regulatory staff throughout the agency.

From 1996 until September of 1999, Sue was an associate at Foley and Lardner, LLP one of the nation’s largest law firms where she served in both the government affairs and health care practice groups. During her tenure, Sue helped grow and develop a new government affairs practice.

Susan received her J.D. from The Georgetown University Law Center and her B.A in history, from Brown University.

One of the few lobbyists named as one of 2021's Top Lobbyists by the National Institute of Lobbying and Ethics and The Hill , Brian is an expert advocate who passionately fights for the issues he believes in. Brian specializes in state and federal legislative advocacy, manages digital communications strategies, and serves as the Executive Director of the non-profit group Sports Fans Coalition. Brian also manages Goodfriend Group’s state-level strategies. Having testified in more than a dozen state capitals across the country, Brian knows how to simultaneously coordinate advocacy efforts for state and federal campaigns.

Brian has been a digital strategist since 2012 for non-profits, trade associations, venture capital firms, and international restaurant brands. He started his career developing the overarching digital communication strategy for the National Association of Home Builders. There, he also assisted in the development and design of their new website. Brian moved onto Fishbowl Marketing and developed marketing strategies for major national and multinational restaurant brands. 

He has a Bachelor's from Virginia Tech in Resource Management where he concentrated in consumer studies. His research and work centered around consumer protection and education. He has also earned his master's in Communication from the University of Oklahoma. In his studies, his work centered around communication theories, applications with digital technology, and the political impact of those theories and applications. 

Brian’s passionate voice for organized labor and his track record for creating consensus helps him build support for your issue. When Brian first began lobbying, he fought alongside organized labor to push back against efforts by the state legislature to strip away the collective bargaining rights of state workers and dismantle Wisconsin’s public universities. Today, Brian continues fighting alongside labor where he recently leveraged his coalition-building experience to successfully lobby for the passage of the landmark Postal Service Reform Act and federal funding for an electric postal fleet.

Brian also has a passion for fighting for consumers and building a more competitive marketplace. As a consumer advocate at the National Consumers League, he lobbied to incorporate common-sense consumer protections before numerous state legislatures, and several federal agencies including the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Transportation, Federal Communications Commission, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. During his tenure, he led the effort to create a model bill to protect consumers from deceptive automatically renewing contracts and successfully advocated for the model bill to be signed into law in the District of Columbia. 

Before advocating for consumers and workers, Brian worked on Capitol Hill for Congressman Ron Kind. While on the Hill, he worked on trade, tax policy, and environmental protections. 

He earned his Bachelor’s from the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. After graduation, Brian went on to study at Georgetown University, where he received a Master of Arts in American Government. While at Georgetown, Brian studied the developing political divide, and how to build consensus in Congress through grassroots/grasstops advocacy campaigns.