{"id":17972,"date":"2022-01-24T08:30:07","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T14:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/?p=17972"},"modified":"2022-02-02T17:14:53","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T23:14:53","slug":"three-years-out-of-law-school-alum-settles-in-to-prosecutors-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/2022\/01\/24\/three-years-out-of-law-school-alum-settles-in-to-prosecutors-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Three years out of law school, alum settles in to prosecutor’s job"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Halle Hatch ’19<\/p><\/div>\n

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. \u201cWhat do I have to lose?\u201d she thought.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Kurt Klomberg, president of the Wisconsin District Attorneys\u2019 Association, said his organization doesn\u2019t track members\u2019 ages, but Hatch is certainly one of the youngest currently in office.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cAfter that, I just knew that\u2019s what I wanted to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hatch got her first taste of prosecution during law school as an intern and certified student attorney in the St. Croix County District Attorney\u2019s office. She conducted hearings, trials and even a jury trial, under the supervision of another prosecutor.<\/p>\n

Professor John Sonsteng, a former prosecutor himself, remembers Hatch and her partner as standouts in his Advanced Advocacy class. They \u201csopped up the information,\u201d he said, and always tried to improve. \u201cThey kept asking questions\u2014they wanted to learn,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cIt was kind of chaotic, but it made me learn fast,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cYou know you\u2019re not going to win every case, every game,\u201d she said. \u201cYou learn how to accept defeat gracefully, and just work harder for the next one, and not to let it get you down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hatch thrives on the fast pace and challenge of her job. \u201cIf I\u2019m on the pitcher\u2019s mound, all eyes are on me, all the pressure is on me,\u201d she said. \u201cThe same is true in the courtroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

And she\u2019s OK with that.<\/p>\n

This article was written by Ann Harrington, a writer in the Twin Cities<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. \u201cWhat do I have to lose?\u201d she thought. Apparently, nothing. Despite running in the middle of a pandemic, she won the 2020 primary against an incumbent running for … <\/p>\n

Three years out of law school, alum settles in to prosecutor’s job<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5668,"featured_media":17408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,5],"tags":[28,312,311,313],"class_list":{"0":"post-17972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-alumni","8":"category-news","9":"tag-alumni","10":"tag-district-attorney","11":"tag-halle-hatch","12":"tag-prosecutor","13":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}