Frederick L. Nelson was born in Lander, Wyoming, graduated from the Montana Deaconess School at Helena, Montana, in 1945, and Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, Washington, in 1949, as the Bausch and Lomb award winner for the outstanding student in science and was the winner of the state-wide United Nations contest. He was awarded an NROTC scholarship to Stanford and was graduated in 1953 with a BA in Economics.

After graduation, he served three years in the United States Navy as an officer aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. Then Fred chose to attend Harvard Law School and received a Juris Doctorate in 1959.

In 1960, he accepted a clerkship with Albert C. Wollenberg, Jr., U. S. District Judge in San Francisco, California. From 1961 to 1963, Fred was a trial attorney for the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in San Francisco, California. After he had tried cases against Clifton Hildebrand and Charles C. McLeod, they asked him to join them. It was the beginning of Fred's efforts to protect the rights and interests of railroad workers.

Fred has enjoyed a tremendously successful and impressive legal career. In addition to representing thousands of railroad workers, Fred has successfully handled toxic exposure, employment, automobile, premises liability and other cases for individuals who suffered personal injury. Fred has successfully represented the interests of railroad unions in both the Federal District and Appellate Courts as well as before the California Public Utilities Commission.

Over the years, Fred has been asked to serve as designated legal counsel for many railroad unions including operating crafts, maintenance of way, members of the signal department, mechanical department, and clerical workers.

Fred has been admitted to an extensive and wide variety of courts ranging from the United States Supreme Court to state and federal courts in several western states.

Fred is a member of the American Trial Lawyers Association, the Consumer Attorneys of California, the Alameda-Contra Costa Trial Lawyers Association, and the Alameda County Bar Association.