Pillen receives three nominees for Nebraska Supreme Court vacancy

LINCOLN — Gov. Jim Pillen will have his pick of three current judges as the next associate justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court for a vacancy in southeastern Nebraska.

The Judicial Nominating Commission for the Fifth District of the Nebraska Supreme Court, chaired by Justice John Freudenberg, advanced the names of three applicants: two district judges and one member of the Nebraska Court of Appeals, after public interviews in Hamilton County. The commission consists of four attorneys, four laypeople and a nonvoting justice.

The nominees are:

• Judge Lawrence E. Welch, Jr., of Plattsmouth, for the Nebraska Court of Appeals, 5th Judicial District.
• District Judge David J. A. Bargen of Adams, for the Saline County District Court in the 1st Judicial District.
• District Judge Jason M. Bergevin of Columbus, for the Platte County District Court in the 5th Judicial District.

Welch joined the Nebraska Court of Appeals in 2018. Bargen and Bergevin joined their district courts at the same time in 2022. All three applicants are serving as judges for the first time.

One of the applicants will succeed Chief Justice Jeffrey Funke, who ascended to the role in October following the retirement of Chief Justice Mike Heavican.

The Nebraska Supreme Court consists of six associate justices who serve specific judicial districts and the chief justice who serves the state at large. 

All Nebraska Supreme Court justices have a salary of $225,055.35.

The 5th Judicial District for the Supreme Court covers Butler, Cass, Clay, Colfax, Fillmore, Gage, Hall, Hamilton, Jefferson, Johnson, Merrick, Nance, Nemaha, Otoe, Pawnee, Platte, Polk, Richardson, Saline, Saunders, Seward, Thayer, Webster and York Counties.

Welch most recently was a law partner at his own Omaha law firm for 21 years. He graduated with his law degree from the Creighton University School of Law in 1994 and served three years as a law clerk and associate attorney in Omaha.

Prior to law school, Welch was an accountant at Arthur Andersen in Omaha. He graduated with a degree in accounting from Loyola Marymount University in 1988.

Bargen most recently was an associate partner in private practice and served one year as an adjunct professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law before becoming a district judge. He graduated from the Nebraska College of Law in 2004 and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and a master’s degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

He was a summer associate in private practice for two years in law school and was a clerk to Senior Judge C. Arlen Beam of the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals between 2004 and 2006.

Bargen was one of four recent applicants for the chief justice seat, including Funke.

Bergevin most recently served as a Nebraska assistant attorney general for seven years. He earned his law degree from Western New England University School of Law in 2005 and went on to be a deputy county attorney for Weld County, in Greeley, Colorado, for four years. He went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as an undergraduate.

He returned to Nebraska in 2009 as a deputy county attorney for Lancaster County and taught paralegal studies through Kaplan University. He has served as a judge advocate for the U.S. Air Force and provided defense services for members of the Nebraska National Guard.