Speaker Biography- Nell Christensen

Chief of Training and Recruiting at the Clark County District Attorney’s Office

Nell Christensen currently serves as the Chief of Training and Recruiting at the Clark County District Attorney’s Office, where she has worked since graduating from law school at the University of Minnesota in 2003.  She conducts a training program for new deputy district attorneys and runs the office’s internship program, among other duties.  Earlier in her career, she worked as a trial attorney, trying approximately 45 felony jury trials, including 13 complex murder cases.  She worked on the office’s Repeat Offender Unit and as Chief of the Gun Crimes Unit, among other assignments.  She has argued before the Nevada Supreme Court on multiple occasions.  Among other leadership roles, Nell currently chairs the District Attorney’s Hiring Committee, Chief Deputy Promotion Committee, Policy Review Committee, Police Training Committee, and Hope for Second Chances Diversion Program, and is a member of the Legislative Committee.

Nell also holds several leadership and volunteer positions in the legal community.  She helped form and now chairs the statewide Nevada Prosecution Best Practices Subcommittee.  She was selected as a member of the national Prosecution Best Practices Committee.  She works as a Panel Chair for the Nevada State Bar’s Attorney Disciplinary Board.  She also volunteers for the Nevada State Bar as a mentor to new attorneys in the Transitioning Into Practice program. Nell teaches Trial Advocacy as an adjunct professor at UNLV Boyd School of Law.  She also regularly spends time at Boyd conducting mock interviews, judging mock trials and moot courts, or teaching trial advocacy topics at Boyd’s Trial Advocacy and Opening Statements and Closing Arguments classes.  In 2019, Nell was chosen from hundreds of applicants to join the elite Leadership Las Vegas Program.  She now serves as an alumnus, working on a committee to provide future classes insight into criminal justice.

In her off time, she keeps busy with her family.  She is married with 4 kids and 2 dogs.