Editor’s note: Stories on all six candidates for district judge will be run day after day this week in alphabetical order. This is the fourth.

Helena City Attorney David Nielsen said during his 34 year career in law, he has learned that he seems to have a calming effect on situations. This, he says, would be an attribute for a judge because in a more serene environment it is easier to resolve conflict and get to the issues at hand.

Nielsen, who is running for the position of First Judicial District Judge, credits his extensive and diverse background for his demeanor. But, that doesn’t mean he’s a pushover.

“I can be a bulldog — persistent and determined,” he said.

During his career, Nielsen has appeared before at least 16 state district court judges, who had a variety of styles and temperaments.

“I’ve done a lot of things from adoption to zoning to personal injury,” he said. “The candidates all bring different skills. You need to have diverse trial experience in land use, personal injury, administrative appeals and government agency cases. Of all of the candidates, I have actively done all of those.”

He has also defended three homicide cases and prosecuted more than 300 felonies, including one homicide.

Before signing on as Helena’s first full-time City Attorney in 1996 and following graduating from Montana State University with a bachelor’s of science degree in industrial and management engineering and later a law degree, Nielsen served as a criminal defense attorney in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps for three years. He practiced privately in Glasgow for a decade. In 1982, he was elected Valley County Attorney, a position he held for eight years. In this position, he argued about 40 felony cases per year, he said.

Bozeman-native Nielsen then moved to Helena in 1990 and served as a litigator for the Montana Department of Revenue, for which he tried tax cases before in state and federal district courts in addition to the Montana Supreme Court.

He said his schooling in engineering taught him to look at all processes to see what might make them work more efficiently, a trend he would bring to the job of judge. Nielsen said he is sure he could find ways to streamline the scheduling of the courts.

Nielsen said he doesn’t see any issues he would change within the court so far and until he is an insider he doesn’t think it’d be fair to comment.

One aspect of being a judge he is used to is being in the public eye. He said his time as City Attorney has helped him thicken his skin.

“You can’t let it get to you or it could destroy you,” he said about having a non-flattering letter to the editor or having someone approach him at a store.

Click here to visit David Nielsen's Web site.

Reporter Angela Brandt: 447-4078 or angela.brandt@helenair.com