Kusz to step into County Attorney role

• Kathleen Kusz

Julie buntjer/Daily Globe Kathleen Kusz stands in one of the law libraries in the Nobles County Attorney office in Worthington. Kusz is expected to be appointed Nobles County Attorney this morning during the commissioners’ board meeting.

Talk about it

WORTHINGTON — Nobles County Commissioners this morning will formally appoint Deputy County Attorney Kathleen Kusz to fill the county attorney post, effective March 1. It’s the same day Gordon Moore moves into his new role as a District Court Judge.

Kusz will fill the remainder of Moore’s term as county attorney, which continues through 2014, and plans to seek election to the office that fall.

“I don’t want to be a placeholder,” she said from her office in Prairie Justice Center. “Doing something for two or three years doesn’t give you the chance to do the job. I want to do it long enough to be able to feel like I’ve made my own mark on this office and done right by the county.”

Kusz, who has worked in the Nobles County Attorney’s office for 18 years, is looking forward to her new role as county attorney. It’s a position she’s passed up twice before, but now feels she’s ready for.

“For me, this is the right time in my career to get this job,” she said. “It’s this perfect storm of feeling that I have the history, so I’m familiar with the office. I have the confidence of looking forward to the public role — looking forward to being out and being in the community more — not just in this office, but in the court system.”

A Bloomington native, Kusz attended Normandale Community College and Drake University, earning her bachelor’s degree in news/editorial journalism. She worked various jobs for a year and then, on a challenge from a friend, took the Law School Admission Test (LSAT).

“I thought it would be good to get a law degree and do political reporting, but that never happened,” she said with a laugh.

Kusz earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of Minnesota School of Law and interviewed for her first job in Mankato — a judicial clerkship. After facing a panel of five judges for the interview, she was offered a law clerk job in Marshall.

“I didn’t even know where that was at,” she said. “I had to look it up on a map.”

Kusz remained as a law clerk for two years before being appointed assistant county attorney in Marshall in 1983. She served in that capacity for seven years.

“I promised myself that when I got out of law school … I would do law until I paid off my student loan, and then I could do anything I wanted to.”

So, in 1990, she took a leave of absence and bought a one-way ticket to Japan. She was going to teach English.

Kusz moved her belongings into storage at her parents’ home in Bloomington, had her airline ticket bought and had one week before her flight when she received a call from Judge George Harrelson. He’d just learned that the Lyon County Attorney, David Peterson, had been appointed to the Redwood County bench.

Harrelson was sure Kusz would get appointed to fill the county attorney post if only she’d return to Marshall.

“I decided to go to Japan,” she said. “I felt I had already made the decision.”

At that time, Kusz said there were opportunities to teach in many different countries, including Europe, where her ancestors emigrated from. She chose Japan because it was so culturally different from what she knew.

“I figured it would be something that would affect me profoundly,” she said.

After two years teaching English, Kusz returned to Minnesota for six months, and then went back to Japan to study the Japanese language.

“When I left there in 1994, I was an intermediate Japanese speaker — not so much now,” she said with a smile.

Upon returning home, she eventually connected with Ken Kohler and the Mork, Darling, Hagemann and Kohler law office in Worthington. At the time, Kohler worked as part-time Nobles County Attorney, and he hired Kusz as his assistant.

In some ways, Kusz said the time she spent abroad helped her to understand the issues of people living in a new country, much like those who make up the melting pot in Worthington.

“I know what it’s like to go to the dentist and need a root canal and worry if you’re going to understand everything they tell you,” she said.

Kusz remained as assistant county attorney through 2002. At the time, Prairie Justice Center was being built on the north side of town, and county commissioners had decided to make the county attorney a full-time position.

Kusz wasn’t interested in campaigning for the job, and none of the other attorneys in the law office where she worked wanted to leave their private practices. Still, someone was needed to oversee the move, and Kusz filled in through the end of the year.

“I didn’t want to be the only experienced attorney and hire three new people, so I talked to Gordon (Moore) about coming on,” she recalled. “I knew he would want to come on as county attorney and I was OK with that. I knew we’d have someone else that was experienced in the office.”

Moore came to the attorney’s office after being employed in private practice with Von Holtum, Malters and Shepherd, where he did work for the city of Worthington. His experience, combined with Kusz’ experience in criminal law, child support, commitments and child protection, meant they had their “bases covered,” she said.

When Moore became county attorney in 2003, Kusz became his backup. About four years ago the deputy county attorney position was created, and she had earned the title.

“That job requires knowledge of all areas of the office and 10 years experience,” she said. “It meant I could officially act for Gordon when he was not here.”

During the next two weeks, Kusz will be “brought up to speed” on some of the cases Moore has been working with so that she’s ready to assume the duties on March 1.

“By the time he walks out the door, I think I’m going to have a good handle of what’s going on,” she said. After working 18 years in the county attorney’s office, she said she already knows the stakeholders and hopes for a seamless transition.

Outside of the law office, Kusz enjoys art, painting in particular. Last summer she and Tricia Mikle had an art show in Marshall, and they are working on a collection of birds featured in a variety of mediums for a future show. She also teaches Tai Chi for arthritis.

Kusz, who has seven siblings — many of whom reside in the Twin Cities — said her family has asked why she hasn’t moved back there, but she enjoys it here.

“I like the lifestyle I am able to live here,” she said. “I have two stoplights on my way to work, and I can drive home for lunch.

“I wouldn’t say my life is slower-paced here. It just has different character — a different flavor — than in the Twin Cities.”

Daily Globe Reporter Julie Buntjer may be reached at 376-7330.

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