Chris Buerger serves as counsel for Civil Legal Services at the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA). In this role, he advises programs on regulatory and compliance matters, particularly (but not exclusively) as they relate to LSC restrictions and requirements. He also assists programs on federal funding opportunities and emerging issues in legal aid. Before joining NLADA, Chris spent most of his career fighting on behalf of low-income parents in the family courts of New York City, first at The Center for Family Representation and then with The Bronx Defenders. Before that, he worked and interned in New York, Louisiana, Oregon, and Ghana. Chris is a graduate of Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and a member of the Human Rights Clinic. He received an M.P.P from Oregon State University, where his research focused on quantitative methods, rural communities, and child welfare policy. He also holds a B.A. from American University with a major in literature and a minor in chemistry.