Pierre Bergeron ’96 moves from the bench to the classroom   

During his career as an attorney and judge, Pierre Bergeron ’96 realized how important personal connections are within the legal community.

“It’s something I definitely did not appreciate, even when I was in law school — how relationship-driven the practice is,” he said. “That’s something I’ve been trying to impress on the students. The relationships you build, even as a law student can be very rewarding for you, not just personally, but professionally down the road.”

And rest assured Bergeron, who joined the Centre faculty after retiring from Ohio’s First District Court of Appeals in February, practices what he preaches to his Centre students.

He has brought attorneys, judges and law school leaders to meet with students, and he’s taken classes into courtrooms around the region. The reaction from friends and colleagues who have engaged with the students has been overwhelmingly positive, he said.

“Uniformly, they said, ’Your students were amazing. They asked great questions, they were really interested, and I loved talking to students like this,’” Bergeron said. “The more we can bring people like that to campus and showcase how talented, curious, and engaged our students are, the more it helps the students — whether through internships, job applications, or law school admissions.”

Along with teaching government and law courses at Centre, Bergeron is also the pre-law advisor and is implementing numerous strategies to help Centre students get into law school and flourish in the legal profession.

“If you look at what law school ultimately evaluates, it’s your writing, your research and your analytical abilities,” he said. “Centre  provides such an incredible foundation on all of those core competencies, so I feel our students already have an advantage.

“What we’re trying to do with the Pre-Law Program is take that foundation, build on it and refine it,” he said. “We’re looking at creative ways to increase LSAT scores and guide students on the LSAT process…  We’re doing personal statement workshops…  We’ve been doing different events with law school admissions officials, so that the students get to hear what the admissions process looks like from the law school side.”

The playbook is built on the experience of Bergeron and Centre’s treasure trove of alumni who found success in the legal profession — a roadmap for flourishing at Centre, in law school, and in the workforce. He has also extended these opportunities to young alumni seeking guidance.

“Part of what I’m trying to do is to make the law and law school more accessible to students, and to develop our relationships with the law schools,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many law school admissions officials tell me they get the best students from Centre. … That’s a legacy that incoming students can take advantage of.”

Helping aspiring lawyers, judges and legal professionals is what brought Bergeron off the bench and into the classroom. The Knoxville, Tennessee, native was elected to the First District Court of Appeals in 2018 following a career as one of the region’s leading appellate lawyers. After joining the Cincinnati office of the international firm of Squire Patton Boggs, he became chair its Appellate and Supreme Court Practice Group. He argued in federal and state appellate courts across the nation and was one of only a few lawyers in Ohio to argue more than once before the United States Supreme Court.

“Seven years out of law school and I had the amazing opportunity to argue at the Supreme Court and then built a practice that I enjoyed. But ultimately, I knew I wanted to get more into public service,” he said, which led to his election to the appellate court.

There, he discovered that one of the aspects he most enjoyed was mentoring the law clerks who rotated through each year, fresh out of law school.

“That mentoring relationship was, and is, a really valuable experience for me,” he said. “And I wanted to do more of that.”

That desire ultimately led Bergeron back to Centre, a cherished place where he met his wife, Jennifer Paschen Bergeron ’95, and watched his brothers, Andrew Bergeron ’98 and Louis Bergeron ’00, graduate.

“I’ve been doing this for a little while now and now I’m getting a lot of calls from young alumni who are in law school and want some help or input on the job search process or want to talk to about judicial clerkships,” Pierre said. “And I think that’s an area that I can hopefully be helpful — through the connections that I’ve developed over the last quarter century in the legal profession.”