NACDL - National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

Professor Barbara Bergman graduated from Stanford Law in 1976. After clerking on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, she became a staff attorney at the Public Defender Service (PDS) in Washington, D.C. She took a one-year hiatus from being a public defender to serve as Associate Counsel to President Jimmy Carter in the White House from 1979 to 1980. After representing clients as a PD for a total of five years -- beginning in juvenile court and ending up representing clients charged with murder and rape -- she joined the law firm of Bredhoff & Kaiser handling civil litigation, including employment and union-side labor law.

In August of 1987, she became a professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law and taught there for 28 years with one of her primary courses being a 6-credit Evidence/Trial Practice course. She also taught Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Children’s Law as well as in the clinic. While at the UNM School of Law, she served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for four years and interim Dean for ten months.    

Professor Bergman had been co-director of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy’s (NITA) Southwest Regional Trial Practice program as well as NITA’s Southwest Taking and Defending Depositions Program. She served on the NITA Board of Trustees from 2006 to 2019 and is now an Emerita Member of that Board. She served as president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) from 2005 to 2006 and has been a national co-chair of NACDL's Amicus Committee since 2006. In 2010, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Trial Advocacy, presented by Stetson School of Law. 

During her tenure at UNM, she joined the defense team in the state court capital prosecution of Terry Nichols. She worked on that case for four and one half years, spending one and one half of those years in Oklahoma, including the three and one half months that the case was in trial in McAlester, Oklahoma. 

Her publications include the Everytrial Criminal Defense Resource Book, Wharton’s Criminal Evidence (8 volumes), Wharton’s Criminal Procedure (5 volumes), and the Arizona Criminal Practice Manual.

On July 1, 2016, Professor Bergman started work at UArizona as the Director of Advocacy, taking the reins from the legendary Professor Tom Mauet, who had founded the Trial Advocacy Program over 40 years before. She now teaches Basic Trial Advocacy, Advanced Trial Advocacy, Interviewing, Counseling and Negotiating, and Taking and Defending Depositions.