Summary
Zelalem Bogale is an attorney based in Reno and licensed to practice law in Nevada and California. In November 2026, he will be sworn in as the Reno City Attorney, having run unopposed in the general election. When he takes office, he will be the first Black person elected to be a city attorney in Nevada history.
Born and raised in Reno, Zelalem began his legal career in San Diego as an intern in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California and later worked as a judicial extern to the Honorable William McCurine, Jr. in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. He later served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Patrick Flanagan of the Second Judicial District Court in Reno, NV, the Honorable William G. Cobb of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, and the Honorable Lidia S. Stiglich of the Nevada Supreme Court (when she was a district judge).
Currently, Zelalem is an Environmental Policy Attorney at Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE). In this first-of-its-kind position, he guides, leads and shapes BHE’s environmental policy at the local, state, national and international levels. Before joining BHE, Zelalem prosecuted violent crime as a Deputy District Attorney at the Washoe County District Attorney’s Office and advised the Nevada Board of Regents and the Chancellor as the Deputy General Counsel at the Nevada System of Higher Education. Outside of BHE, he teaches race, law and criminal justice at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he was awarded Most Outstanding Overall Fall 2021 Foundation Outstanding Letter of Appointment for his class “Race and Law,” which he began teaching in 2017.
Zelalem is deeply involved in law-related service and the civic education community. Appointed in 2019 by U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen, he is an original member of the Nevada Federal Judicial Commission, which recommends candidates for the federal bench. He is a former We the People coordinator and former Board Member of the Nevada Center for Civic Engagement. He serves on the Center’s National Advisory Council and regularly serves as a judge at the national finals. He recently assisted other scholars from across the country in writing the next We the People textbook.
Zelalem holds a Graduate Certificate from the Yale School of Management and the Yale School of the Environment, a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a law degree from California Western School of Law, where he served as President of the Black Law Students Association.
Research interests
- Constitutional law
- Reconstruction amendments
- Role of equity in American constitutional jurisprudence
- Social construction of race
- Race and law
- Environmental racism
- Civic education
Selected publications
- We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution, Level 3 Textbook, Center for Civic Education (2026); “Bail reform in Nevada rightly presumes innocence, not guilt,” Reno-Gazette Journal, June 1, 2022.
- “Acknowledge racial inequality, seek constructive solutions,” Reno-Gazette Journal, June 1, 2020.
- “Writing to Judges . . . Persuasively,” Nevada Lawyer Magazine, co-authored with Hon. Lidia Stiglich. October 2013.
- E-Responsibility: E-Waste, International Law and Africa’s Growing Digital Wasteland, 18 U.C. DAVIS J. INT’L L. & POL’Y 225 (2011)
Notable stories
- "Murder Trial: 'You don't disrespect MS-13 and make it out alive,'" Reno-Gazette Journal, October 4, 2017.
Courses taught
- ETS 350: Topics in Race and Racism - Race Law
- CRJ 320: Court in Criminal Justice
- CRJ 420: Jurisprudence
- PSC 409L: Jurisprudence
Education
- Graduate Certificate, Clean and Equitable Energy Development, Yale University, 2024
- J.D., California Western School of Law, 2011
- B.A., Philosophy, University of Nevada, Reno, 2004