Jessica Pelto is the first full-time assistant staff member of the Michigan Attorney General’s Office in Marquette.

She has plenty of experience, including working under the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission grant in Delta County and administering the court-appointed attorney program in Delta County. She also worked for Delta County Friend of the Court as the county’s chief assistant prosecuting attorney.

Located at Northern Michigan University’s Northern Center, the Marquette-based office opened in 2014 but had been used by attorney general staff visiting the area for official business.

This should no longer be the norm.

Pelto believes the attorney general and Lansing officials recognized the need for a full-time attorney in the Upper Peninsula.

She will have a specific mission in Marquette.

Most of the work the attorney general’s office handles in the U.P. are cases filed by Michigan Department of Corrections offenders against the MDOC and its employees.

This is understandable, given the number of prisons in the U.P., including the Marquette Branch Prison.

So, Pelto’s work is expected to help reduce costs and better serve U.P. residents.

Her presence in Marquette also should keep the attorney general’s office from having to rely on downstate attorneys to travel all the way to the U.P.

To us, Pelto, who earned a law degree from Cooley Law School in Lansing, seems like a good fit for this newly created position. Not only is she familiar with the region, having graduated from Rapid River High School and Northern Michigan, she has plenty of legal experience.

And Pelto appears to want to be here. She told The Mining Journal her goal is to establish the office so it will be in the area for a long time.

We hope it will be a permanent fixture as well.