Eric C. Tostrud ’90, distinguished practitioner in residence at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, was nominated Monday by President Donald Trump to serve as a district judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.
Tostrud had been mentioned previously as a likely nominee for one of the openings created in 2016 when judges Ann Montgomery and Donovan Frank moved to senior status, but Monday was the official announcement from the White House.
The president also nominated Nancy E. Brasel, a district court judge in Minnesota’s 4th Judicial District, to fill the other federal judgeship in Minnesota. The nominations will be considered by the U.S. Senate.
In addition to serving on the faculty at Mitchell Hamline, where he teaches in the areas of federal jurisdiction and federal court procedure, Tostrud is of counsel with Lockridge Grindal Nauen. In his 26 years at the firm, he has maintained a complex commercial litigation practice almost exclusively in federal court, with emphasis in complex insurance coverage, health care litigation, and ERISA.
Tostrud joined the Mitchell Hamline faculty in January 2015 after transitioning from partner to of counsel at Lockridge Grindal Nauen. He earned a B.A. from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., and a J.D., summa cum laude, from William Mitchell College of Law, a predecessor to Mitchell Hamline. He served as a law clerk to Judge George E. MacKinnon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and to Judge Edward J. Devitt of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.