Nicholas Hart

Nicholas Hart practices law at Harrison & Hart, LLC in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Criminal defense is part of a practice that also includes appeals, post-conviction proceedings, civil cases and personal injury matters.

One defense assignment described by the firm involved Hart handling motions practice and working with expert witnesses. The client faced murder, child abuse resulting in death and other charges; Hart served on the trial team. The firm reports that several counts were dismissed before trial, government experts withdrew, and the client entered a plea during jury selection.

Trial preparation also figures in Hart’s account of his day-to-day work. His firm biography describes using a trial strategy to decide how to conduct discovery, which motions to file and which experts to hire. It places conversations with the client early in that process, before the task of presenting the client’s account to a judge or jury. Clients’ experiences and knowledge inform litigation decisions, according to the biography.

Hart previously clerked for Judge James E. Graves of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. There, he examined criminal appeals submitted by people without lawyers to determine whether they presented a case for court review. Away from legal work, his biography describes hikes with his wife and son in the Sandia Mountain foothills and chamber music sessions with other criminal defense lawyers.