Nick Chase ’95 appointed East Central Judicial District Judge

BISMARCK, N.D. – Gov. Doug Burgum has appointed Interim U.S. Attorney Nick Chase of Fargo to a judgeship in the East Central Judicial District.

Chase has served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota since 2002. As an assistant U.S. attorney, he led the office’s Appellate, White Collar Fraud, Criminal Immigration and Asset Recovery units. Chase has tried numerous cases to verdict, including illegal labor trafficking, child exploitation, violent crime, international bank fraud, narcotics, money laundering, farm program fraud and Jamaican lottery fraud.

Chase was promoted to first assistant U.S. attorney in 2019. He was appointed to serve as interim U.S. attorney in February 2021, succeeding former U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley, who is now North Dakota’s attorney general.

Chase served as a special assistant North Dakota attorney general for two years while working in private practice from 1998 to 2002. He served as a law clerk for Senior Circuit Judge Myron Bright in the 8^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1997-98 and for Magistrate Judge Karen Klein in U.S. District Court from 1995-97. Chase earned his bachelor’s degree from Minot State University and his law degree from the University of North Dakota in 1995.

Chase will fill the judgeship vacancy created by the April 30 retirement of Judge Thomas R. Olson, who has served as a district judge since 2014. Four attorneys were named as finalists to fill the vacancy for the judgeship, which serves Cass, Steele and Traill counties.