The halls of the Clallam County Courthouse are quite familiar to Mark Nichols.

A Clallam Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for nearly eight years, Nichols is asking voters to consider putting him in charge of his former office as Prosecuting Attorney.

“The time is right in my life to give 100 percent,” Nichols says.

Prior to his promotion to Chief Deputy, Nichols served as a deputy prosecutor in the Superior Court division, prosecuting juvenile and adult offenders accused of felonies and misdemeanors. He also served as the office’s Drug Court Deputy Prosecutor for Clallam County’s Adult and Juvenile Drug Courts.

Born and raised in Seattle, Nichols graduated from Roosevelt High School and earned a bachelor of arts from the University of Washington. He earned his law degree from Seattle University School of Law.

He worked as a juvenile court deputy under then Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly, but returned to Seattle for one year; a bit of advice he got from his uncle, a judge in California, motivated Nichols to try the private sector for at least one year. Nichols worked for an insurance defense firm, handling suits such as firms found guilty of faulty construction.

It didn’t take more than a year for Nichols to realize he’d rather be back in the public sector.

“It didn’t have the degree of satisfaction that’d I’d had here,” he says. “It’s a calling, not just a job.”

Nichols says Kelly was very effective holding serious offenders accountable. “We didn’t always agree,” Nichols says, but notes the department operated well under the longtime lead prosecutor.

“We can continue to be more efficient,” Nichols says of the prosecutor’s department. That includes handling more cases in-house rather than hiring out to other entities.

“We live in litigious times,” Nichols says. “Some we can handle in-house, as many as we responsibly can.”

The department also can encourage more conversation between prosecutors and the defense early in the process of cases as each side looks for a “resolution with accountability.”

In a 2-1 decision, county commissioners chose to appoint general-practice lawyer Will Payne over Nichols; Nichols resigned soon after.

Considering he’d be running for the position, Nichols says, “I thought it was the honorable, respectful thing to do.”

Nichols works as a hearings examiner for Clallam County.

“I love it. I love public service,” Nichols says. “I enjoy meeting … citizens, going to people’s homes.”

Nichols has presented several seminars on ethics and the law before the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys and volunteers his time as a certified instructor with the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Center.

Outside work, Nichols belongs to the Nor’Wester Rotary Club, a community service-oriented group, in which he will serve as club president for 2014-2015. He also serves as a coordinator for the Clallam County Teen Court Program.

Come November, Nichols hopes to secure enough votes to bring him back into the prosecutor’s office.

“I’m extremely comfortable with the duties that come with the county prosecutor seat,” Nichols says. “I know the client base (and) I have pre-established rapport. I know the quirks of the county entity.

“Public safety, public justice, public service. That will define the work I do.”