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Pierre Bergeron

Lively Professor of Government & Law • Pre-Law Advisor

Offices & Programs

Education

BA: ¹ú±êÂ鶹ÊÓƵAPP
JD: University of Virginia School of Law

BIOGRAPHY

Judge (Ret.) Pierre Bergeron served as a judge on Ohio’s First District Court of Appeals for six years, participating in over 1,000 appellate decisions. Elected to the bench in 2018 after a career as one of the leading appellate lawyers in the region, Bergeron’s colleagues elected him as Administrative Judge for 2021. In that role, he led various court modernization and transparency projects to improve operations. Relatedly, his work promoting collection of data as part of criminal justice reform attracted national attention. He published an article on the topic in The Atlantic magazine and was interviewed on NPR. The Ohio Supreme Court appointed him to the Wrongful Conviction Task Force, which explored ways to ensure that innocent people are not wrongfully incarcerated. Bergeron also served as a visiting judge on the Ohio Supreme Court.

Bergeron began his career clerking for the Honorable David A. Nelson on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. He then joined the international firm of Squire Patton Boggs, eventually chairing its Appellate and Supreme Court Practice Group. Bergeron argued in federal and state appellate courts across the nation and was one of only a few lawyers in Ohio who have argued more than once before the United States Supreme Court.

Bergeron has published extensively in legal journals and law-related publications across the country, including the law reviews for Wake Forest, Emory, Kentucky, Cincinnati, and Tennessee. He taught state constitutional law as an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. He remains active in various bar associations and is committed to finding creative ways to improve our legal system and profession.