Nelson went on to lead LDF's Political Participation Group, including the entire voting rights and redistricting docket, felony disenfranchisement, and voter suppression matters.

During her initial tenure at LDF, her notable cases included Hayden v. Pataki, a challenge to New York’s felon disenfranchisement scheme in which she argued before the Second Circuit en banc and served as lead counsel.

A member of the litigation and policy teams, Nelson was lead counsel in Veasey v. Abbott (2018),[6] a successful federal challenge to Texas’ discriminatory voter ID law, and was the lead architect of National Urban League, et al. v. Trump (2020), which sought to declare President Trump’s Executive Order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion training in the workplace unconstitutional before it was later rescinded by President Biden.

[7] In 2021, Nelson represented Professor Nikole Hannah-Jones in a lawsuit against the University of North Carolina Board of Regents concerning its decision to deny and delay awarding her tenure when promoting her to the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Reporting.

The MMSP, named in honor of the nation’s first Black Supreme Court Justice and LDF founder Thurgood Marshall, and iconic civil rights litigator Constance Baker Motley, is a multi-year commitment to endow the South with committed, prepared civil rights lawyers trained to provide legal advocacy.