Hon. Nicholas W. Chase is a judge for the East Central Judicial District of North Dakota. He was appointed to the bench by Governor Doug Burgum in 2022, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of the Hon. Thomas R. Olson (Ret.).
The East Central Judicial District includes Cass, Steele, and Traill Counties.
Prior to his appointment, Chase was the Interim United States Attorney for the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota, having been appointed to the position in 2021. After joining the office as an Assistant United States Attorney in 2002, he went on to lead the Appellate, White Collar Fraud, Criminal Immigration, and Asset Recovery Units, and his caseload there included illegal labor trafficking, child exploitation, violent crime, international bank fraud, narcotics, money laundering, farm program fraud, and Jamaican lottery fraud. Then, in 2019, Chase was promoted to First Assistant United States Attorney, and he remained in that capacity until being named Interim United States Attorney in 2021.
Before joining the Department of Justice, he worked as a private practice attorney (1998 to 2002) and spent two years as a special assistant attorney general in North Dakota. Chase began his legal career as a law clerk for the Hon. Karen Klein with the United States District Court (1995 to 1997) and later became a law clerk to the Hon. Myron Bright with the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1997 to 1998).
He received a bachelor’s degree from Minot State University. Chase went on to complete a J.D. at the University of North Dakota School of Law in 1995.
He was admitted to practice in North Dakota (1995), Minnesota (1998), and the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota (1998).