Treasurer Zach Conine, who is running for state attorney general, has agreed to a settlement in a years-old wrongful termination lawsuit against his office that was set to go to trial later this month. 

According to court records, on Sept. 5 Conine’s office reached an undisclosed settlement with Sheila Salehian, who was dismissed from her job under the state treasurer in 2019.  The lawsuit was set to go to trial on Sept. 11, with Conine listed in court documents as a potential witness. 

Representatives of Conine and Salehian did not return requests for comment. 

Salehian’s original lawsuit was filed in 2021 and alleged that her firing was the result of age- and disability-related discrimination. She was 58 years old and the manager of Nevada’s Millennium Scholarship program at the time of her dismissal. Her replacement was 38 years old. 

Salehian cited this fact, along with comments allegedly made by Conine’s staffers about her experience in state government, to argue that she was illegally fired due to her age and her recent diagnosis with skin cancer. Conine’s office has repeatedly denied these allegations.

In October 2023, a federal district court judge approved the state’s motion to dismiss Salehian’s lawsuit, writing that she had not provided sufficient evidence to prove that age or disability was the reason for her dismissal. But a year later in November 2024, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled that one of her age-discrimination claims had sufficient contextual evidence to proceed to trial, while upholding the district court’s decision to reject the rest of her claims. 

In a statement to The Nevada Independent in August, the treasurer’s office emphasized that it had “already prevailed on 10 of 11 claims originally filed in this case.” 

Conine launched his bid for attorney general in May and is facing stiff competition from Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas), who announced her campaign in July. The primary between the high-profile Democrats is set for next June. 

Nevada’s current attorney general, Democrat Aaron Ford, is term-limited and running for the governor’s seat in 2026.