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Chicago Lawyer Michael G. Bergmann Begins Term as Chair of ABA Young Lawyers Division

CHICAGO, Aug. 10, 2011 – Chicago lawyer Michael G. Bergmann has begun a one-year term as chair of the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, concluding in August 2012.

Bergmann is executive director of the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI), a nonprofit organization that promotes public interest law among law students and lawyers.

During his one-year term as ABA YLD chair, Bergmann will implement a public service initiative to help veterans obtain their federal benefits. Other initiatives during his term will provide young lawyers with resources for charting their career paths, increase diversity in the pipeline to the legal profession, promote a Law Day video contest for high school students, and offer a conference for new law firm partners and in-house counsel.

Bergmann joined PILI in 2006 as pro bono initiative director and later served as its director of programs prior to being named executive director in December 2010. He previously served as the guardian ad litem program director for Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, where he represented children in contested and problematic custody disputes.  Prior to and during law school, Bergmann was a consultant with the Financial Planning Solutions Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, responsible for project management and business development.

An active member of the ABA and other bar and community groups, Bergmann is also vice-chair of the Lawyers Conference of the ABA Judicial Division. He previously served for three years on the ABA Presidential Advisory Council on Diversity in the Profession. Bergmann serves on the council of the Illinois State Bar Association Young Lawyers Division and is a past chair of the ISBA’s Child Law Section Council and the Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services.  He also served for several years as an officer with the Chicago Bar Association Young Lawyers Section.

Bergmann serves on the Advisory Board for the DePaul University College of Law’s Center for Public Interest Law, where he is also an adjunct professor.  He has served on the boards of directors of several community organizations, including the Edgewater Community Council, the Factory Theater Company and the Nicholas Senn High School Local School Council.

Bergmann was named the 2005 recipient of the Kimball and Karen Anderson Public Interest Law Fellowship from the Chicago Bar Foundation and the Illinois State Bar Association’s 2006 Outstanding Young Lawyer.

Bergmann earned his bachelor’s degree in politics from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He received his law degree from DePaul University College of Law in Chicago.

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the world’s largest voluntary professional membership organization. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

The ABA Young Lawyers Division, with more than 150,000 members and 300 affiliated groups, is the world’s largest young lawyer organization and the ABA’s largest division.