Leadership

About Nora Cregan, Founder and Executive Director

Nora Cregan

NORA CREGAN
Founder and Executive Director

Nora Cregan is the founder and Executive Director of The Access Project, Inc. She spearheads the design of programs that leverage technology and the pro bono commitment of the private bar to revolutionize delivery of legal services to underserved communities.

Prior to founding The Access Project, Nora was a litigation partner at Bingham McCutchen, where she represented Fortune-100 companies in large-scale antitrust, intellectual property, and commercial litigation. For several years, she also served as the firm’s global pro bono chair. After McCutchen Doyle’s merger with Bingham Dana, she led the effort to bring parity to the firm’s pro bono commitments around the world, making Bingham McCutchen a national pro bono leader and member of the American Lawyer’s A-List. Nora is a longtime member of the Board of Directors of the national Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and is currently a member of its Executive Committee. She has been involved in its Election Protection program since its inception.

Nora’s experience — as a litigator, law firm partner, pro bono committee chair, legal-services board member, and volunteer — makes her especially well equipped to design and implement programs that provide quality free legal services while also meeting the needs, and maximizing the reach, of law firm pro bono programs.

A native of Philadelphia but a longtime Bay Area resident, Nora graduated cum laude from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was a member of the Law Review, and magna cum laude from Middlebury College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She clerked for the Honorable Eugene A. Wright of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Our Partners

Our Mission

The Access Project was founded in 2019 to improve access to high-quality legal services to people of limited means. Through creative use of technology and innovative program design, we leverage the resources and enthusiasm of law firm volunteers to complement and support the work of legal services organizations.