He will be a tremendous asset to our agency and to our state’s appellate leadership on the major legal questions of our era.”
“I am delighted to welcome Aaron as Solicitor General. In this position, he will lead the critical appellate work for some of our most significant, far-reaching cases,” said Attorney General Paxton. “His talent and expertise are virtually unmatched, earning him national renown in the legal community. He will be a tremendous asset to our agency and to our state’s appellate leadership on the major legal questions of our era.”
“It is my great honor to serve the state of Texas as Solicitor General. I look forward to working alongside the team Attorney General Paxton has assembled and to leading and learning from the world-class lawyers in the Solicitor General Division that represent Texas so well in our nation’s appellate courts,” said Mr. Nielson.
Mr. Nielson is a Professor of Law at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School, specializing in administrative law, civil procedure, antitrust, and the federal courts. One of the nation’s foremost experts on the Administrative Procedure Act, he recently served as Chair of the Administration and Management Committee of the Administrative Conference of the United States. He also recently served on the Council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice and currently co-chairs its antitrust committee. Professor Nielson is a visiting fellow at the Antonin Scalia Law School’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. He is taking a one-year leave of absence from Brigham Young University to serve as Solicitor General.
In 2020, Mr. Nielson was appointed by the U.S. Supreme Court to brief and argue Collins v. Yellen, a separation-of-powers case about the Federal Housing Finance Agency. He also regularly represents clients in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. His publications have appeared in many of the nation’s top journals, including the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Duke Law Journal, and University of Chicago Law Review.
Before joining the BYU faculty, Mr. Nielson was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where for many years he has been of counsel in the appellate and antitrust groups. He also has served as a law clerk to Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Houston, Texas.
Mr. Nielson received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School. He also received an LL.M from the University of Cambridge. He received his undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in economics and political science.
