Nate Nelson, a 1998 Apollo High School graduate, majored in history and minored in ancient Greek while attending St. John’s University. He loved history, but after graduation realized he didn’t want to teach the subject. Instead, he turned to his other passion, debate, and attended law school at the University of Minnesota to obtain his law degree.
“I’ve always been fascinated with politics,” explains Nelson. “I loved to argue with my dad (an attorney), but I didn’t want to be like him . . . apparently he was more influential than I thought!”
Completing his law degree, Nelson began clerking for United States Federal Judge, Janis Graham Jack, in Texas. He enjoyed the work and continued on to the Federal Court of Appeals Third Circuit where he clerked for Judge Maryanne Trump Barry (President Trump’s sister). After moving back to Minnesota, Nelson clerked for Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, Alan Page, Judge Wilhema Wright of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota and Judge Christopher Dietz.
“Working for judges you handle all sorts of cases,” says Nelson. “Clerking really gives you a taste of all of it.”
After working for a law firm for a number of years, Nelson became a federal prosecutor. He’s been an Assistant United States Attorney for the last three years. The majority of his prosecution cases have been drug, firearm or violent crimes.
“Being a prosecutor is a duty to not just try cases but to do the right thing,” says Nelson. “I have discretion in who and how to prosecute.”
He feels that his current job is challenging.
“There are a lot of new things to learn,” he explains. “I still feel like I’m learning. In five years, I still hope to be doing this type of work. There is plenty of room to grow in this field.”
He credits several of his District 742 teachers for his passion for law as well as his commitment in “doing the right thing.”
His Madison Elementary teacher, Juel Dragland, was influential at an early age.
“I loved the amount of personal care and attention that he gave students,” says Nelson. “I was new to the District. He always took the extra time to make sure that I was doing well.”
He praises his semantics teacher, Mark Mortrude at Apollo, for instilling his love of learning, reading and literature.
Of course his mock trial coach, John Wertz, also played a big role.
“He got me interested in the courtroom setting,” says Nelson.
To be an attorney, Nelson believes you need to be curious and have an open mind, enjoy the idea of exploring new ideas and viewpoints and love to read, read, read.
“So much of law is reading,” he maintains.
He even advises reading anything as much as possible to increase reading comprehension.
The courtroom is where Nelson loves to be. In the future, he may consider the bench.
“Possibly down the road, I may become a judge,” he explains. “It goes back to that feeling of doing the right thing.”
For now, he loves the challenge of the work and looks back with no regrets. He’s also put his history major to good use. There is a lot of history to be read and found in the law. For some, it’s like reading Greek.
