Former North Dakota AG who sued for alleged age bias is found dead
Former North Dakota Attorney General Nicholas Spaeth was found dead at his Fargo apartment on Sunday after police were called for a well-being check.
Spaeth, who was attorney general from 1985 to 1992, died at the age of 64, report Inforum and the Bismarck Tribune.
Police visited Spaeth’s apartment after receiving a report of a suicidal person, according to Fargo police Lt. Joel Vettel. However, Spaeth’s son, Kevin Spaeth, told Inforum that family members called police after they were unable to contact Nicholas Spaeth.
Police said there was no indication of foul play and they could not speculate on the cause of death. Kevin Spaeth said his father had some heart issues and there is no clear cause of death.
Nicholas Spaeth was recently in the news for filing age bias suits against several law schools after he was passed over for employment as a law professor. He dropped all the suits except for the one against Georgetown University Law School, the Bismarck Tribune reports. A federal judge dismissed the Georgetown suit last May.
Nicholas Spaeth was a Stanford Law School graduate who clerked for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White. He ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1992. After that he opened a Fargo office for Dorsey & Whitney and served as general counsel for H&R Block, Intuit and General Electric’s conglomerate of insurance companies, the Forum says. In December he became of counsel at Fremstad Law in Fargo. Name partner Joel Fremstad tells the ABA Journal that Spaeth “was extraordinarily kind and generous and he will be much missed.”
Updated at 10:20 a.m. to include comment from Joel Fremstad.
