Patricia T. Bergeson

Patricia (Pat) T. Bergeson is Vice President of Legal Affairs and General Counsel of Columbia College Chicago. She began her legal career at a prominent Chicago law firm, specializing in litigation and trial work, and became a partner there. She later was named deputy corporation counsel for the City of Chicago and served as acting corporation counsel under Mayor Richard M. Daley. Her prior higher education experience includes the position of associate general counsel at the University of Chicago, and general counsel of Rosalind Franklin University. Ms. Bergeson has tried jury cases in tort, contract, employment, fraud, and criminal matters, and settled and mediated hundreds of cases to resolution. She has extensive counselling experience in all areas of higher education law, has spoken and written frequently on non-profit governance and diverse legal topics, and develops academic law training workshops for other institutions of higher learning.

A graduate of the Honors College at Michigan State University, she obtained her law degree cum laude from Notre Dame Law School. Ms. Bergeson has served on the board of the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation, the Illinois Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and is a former panel attorney for the Federal Defender Program for the Northern District of Illinois.