Judge Pierre H. Bergeron

Judge Pierre H. Bergeron was elected to the First District Court of Appeals in November 2018 following a career as one of the leading appellate lawyers in the region. 

Judge 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.  Judge 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.  

Judge 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 has attracted national attention.  He published an article on the topic in The Atlantic magazine and was interviewed on NPR.  Also, the Supreme Court appointed him to the Wrongful Conviction Task Force, which is exploring ways to ensure that innocent people are not wrongfully incarcerated.

Judge Bergeron remains active in bar and related activities.  He serves as a Trustee of the Cincinnati Bar Association, teaches a course on State Constitutional Law at UC’s College of Law, and publishes the Procedural Fairness blog for the American Judges Association.  He recently published an article in the Journal of Appellate Practice and Process on the future of oral argument based on the pandemic experience and widespread use of Zoom oral arguments, and he has spoken on that topic at several CLE sessions. 

Judge Bergeron graduated from Centre College and the University of Virginia School of Law. A native of Tennessee, he made Cincinnati home after law school more than 20 years ago.  He lives with his family in Mount Lookout and their rescue Labrador retriever, who is Judge Bergeron’s constant jogging companion.