Professional Experience

Kris Bergstrom began her tenure as Executive Director of Neighborhood Legal Services in January 2022 becoming the fifth chief executive in the organization’s 57 year history and its first female leader. Kris is responsible for overseeing the administration, programs, fund development and strategic planning of the organization. Prior to being named NLS Executive Director, Kris practiced Elder and Consumer Law in NLS’s Pittsburgh Office since 2018. Before joining NLS, Kris was the Directing Attorney for the Las Vegas Branch of Nevada Legal Services.  While working for Nevada Legal Services, Kris started a Criminal Record Sealing Program that assisted thousands of Nevadans in sealing their criminal records in order to obtain better employment and housing.  Kris also created and taught a series of Community Legal Education Classes and Self-Help Clinics throughout Southern Nevada in order to help pro se litigants navigate through the legal system.  A career legal aid attorney, Kris believes in collaborating with community partners to expand legal services to underserved populations.  Kris also enjoys using technology to enable low-income litigants the ability to more easily access the legal system and plans to leverage past experience creating a series of automated online forms for criminal record sealing, estate planning, and family law. Kris also enjoys supervising and mentoring attorneys and served as a mentor in the Nevada Bar’s Transitioning Into Practice program. Kris also worked at the Disabilities Rights Center in New Hampshire from 2004-2007.

Education

Kris earned her J.D. from Cornell Law School in 2004.  She was the winner of the 2004 Stanley E. Gould Prize for Public Interest Law and the 2006 winner of the Sarah Betsey Fuller Social Justice Award.  She received a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Puget Sound in 1998.

Bar Association Memberships/Admissions

Kris is a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Association