Halle Hatch ’19
Halle Hatch was 26 and working as an associate at a western Wisconsin law firm when the opportunity presented itself to run for Pierce County District Attorney. “What do I have to lose?” she thought.
Apparently, nothing. Despite running in the middle of a pandemic, she won the 2020 primary against an incumbent running for his third term, then ran unopposed in November. In early January 2021, she was sworn in at age 27, nearly 20 months after graduating from Mitchell Hamline.
Kurt Klomberg, president of the Wisconsin District Attorneys’ Association, said his organization doesn’t track members’ ages, but Hatch is certainly one of the youngest currently in office.
Hatch set her sights on the law early. Growing up in Ellsworth, Wisconsin, she wrote an essay in seventh-grade civics that won her a visit to the courthouse. “After that, I just knew that’s what I wanted to do,” she said.
Hatch got her first taste of prosecution during law school as an intern and certified student attorney in the St. Croix County District Attorney’s office. She conducted hearings, trials and even a jury trial, under the supervision of another prosecutor.
Professor John Sonsteng, a former prosecutor himself, remembers Hatch and her partner as standouts in his Advanced Advocacy class. They “sopped up the information,” he said, and always tried to improve. “They kept asking questions—they wanted to learn,” he said.
Hatch started working as an assistant district attorney a month before she was even officially elected, after her predecessor and another assistant district attorney left the office. “It was kind of chaotic, but it made me learn fast,” she said.
A former star pitcher on her high school softball team, Hatch says sports helped her develop a thick skin. That came in handy when she recently suffered her first loss in a jury trial. “You know you’re not going to win every case, every game,” she said. “You learn how to accept defeat gracefully, and just work harder for the next one, and not to let it get you down.”
Hatch thrives on the fast pace and challenge of her job. “If I’m on the pitcher’s mound, all eyes are on me, all the pressure is on me,” she said. “The same is true in the courtroom.”
And she’s OK with that.
This article was written by Ann Harrington, a writer in the Twin Cities