Nelson Freeman represents clients on a variety of topics before Congress, the North Carolina legislature and executive branch, and provides strategic management of lobbying services for multi-state clients. Nelson focuses on financial services representation that includes major nationally chartered banks, state chartered banks, electronic transaction corporations, and financial technology (FinTech) start-ups. Over the past two legislative cycles, Nelson has shepherded legislation to the governor’s desk to improve the tax climate for clients, to improve corporate governance requirements, to improve lending practices, and creating the first FinTech and InsurTech regulatory sandbox in the South East.

Nelson joined the firm from the Office of North Carolina Speaker of the House Tim Moore (R – Cleveland County). He was Speaker Moore’s top advisor on tax policy, information technology policy, Alcohol Beverage Control, and economic development. During his time with Speaker Moore, Nelson was integral to the negotiations of the four major tax bills in 2017 including the enactment of a personal income tax cut to the lowest rate in the Southeast and corporate tax reduction to the lowest in the country for those states that have a corporate tax. In 2020 and 2021, Nelson was recognized as one of the top 25 lobbyists in North Carolina by the North State Journal.

Prior to joining Speaker Moore’s office, Nelson served as the North Carolina Department of Revenue (DOR) Legislative Liaison. In this role, he successfully lobbied for major changes to tax reporting to reduce fraud and identity theft that is now saving the state of North Carolina over $60 million dollars a year. He was also the primary representative of the DOR before the General Assembly on negotiations related to the base expansion for sales tax that represented the largest shift in state sales tax collections.

Nelson worked for over eight years for Safari Club International (SCI), a membership advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. before joining the North Carolina Department of Revenue in 2015. His last position was Deputy Director of Government Affairs, and in this role he managed SCIs entire public affairs program including in-house lobbyists, multiple lobbying and public relations consultants, and acted as an industrywide coordinator for international, national, and state based lobbying. He raised over $3.2 million for the organization’s political action committee over 4 election cycles with more than an 80% win rate.