Richard M. Berman

Education and early career

Berman received his Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University in 1964. He earned his Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law in 1967. He received a Diploma of Comparative Law in 1968 and a Diploma of International Law in 1970 from the University of Stockholm Faculty of Law, where he also served as Assistant to the Dean of Foreign Students. He received a Master of Social Work from Fordham Graduate School of Social Service in 1996. He went into private practice at Davis Polk & Wardwell in 1970. In 1974, he became Executive Assistant to United States Senator Jacob Javits. In 1977, he was named executive director of the New York State Alliance to Save Energy, co-chaired by Senators Javits and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. A year later, he was appointed General Counsel and Executive Vice President of the Warner Cable Corporation, a position he held until 1986, when he returned to private practice as a partner of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae.

Judicial career

Berman was appointed by Mayor Giuliani as judge of the New York State Family Court for Queens County (1995 to 1998). On May 21, 1998, he was named by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 21, 1998. Berman assumed senior status on September 11, 2011.

He is a member of the New York State-Federal Judicial Council, which is concerned with issues of interest to the state and federal judiciary. Berman served as Chairman of the council from 2011 to 2012. Berman is currently the Chairman of the Southern District of New York Senior Judges Committee. Berman was previously a co-chair of the Second Circuit Judicial Conference in 2005 and 2022.

Notable cases

U.S. District Court

In June 2024, Berman presided over the criminal jury trial of Ricardo Ferguson for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine, attempted Hobbs Act robbery, murder through the use of a firearm, and using and carrying a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. Ferguson was found guilty on June 18, 2024.

In March 2023, Berman presided over the criminal jury trial of former U.S. Congressman Stephen Buyer for “insider trading” for buying shares of Spring and Navigant Consulting before both were acquired by other companies, which he knew through his consulting work before the information was made public. He was found guilty on March 10, 2023. On September 19, 2023, Berman sentenced Buyer to a term of 22 months of incarceration and 3 years of supervised release. Buyer was also ordered to forfeit $354,027 in illegal gains and given a $10,000 fine.

In January 2023, Berman presided over the criminal jury trial of gynecologist Robert Hadden for sexually assaulting his patients during examinations. Berman sentenced Haden in July 2023 to the maximum term of 20 years of incarceration and a lifetime of supervised release.

On October 15, 2019, Turkish bank Halkbank was indicted for allegedly conspiring to defraud the United States. In August 2020, Halkbank filed a motion to dismiss, alleging that the District Court lacked personal jurisdiction and that Halkbank is immune from liability under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and “common law” principles. On October 1, 2020, Berman denied Halkbank's motion to dismiss, and on October 22, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed Berman's decision. The Supreme Court also rejected Halkbank's argument that it has immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, but remanded to the Second Circuit to consider whether the bank has immunity under “common law” principles. In dissent, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the Supreme Court's decision “overcomplicates the law for no good reason.”

In November and December 2017, Berman presided over the criminal jury trial of Turkish citizen Mehmet Hakan Atilla. Atilla was convicted of 5 out of 6 counts in the Indictment, including conspiracies to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran and to defraud the United States, and bank fraud. Atilla was sentenced on May 16, 2018, to 32 months in prison.

Family Court Case

In January 1998, as a New York State family court judge, Berman removed two children from the custody of then professional baseball player Carl Everett and his wife. The Everetts had consented to findings of child neglect following the discovery of bruises on their daughter at the Shea Stadium child care center.

U.S. District Court 3 Judge Panels

Berman was part of a three-judge panel that heard challenges to the redistricting plan enacted by the New York State Legislature following the 2000 census. Following a bench trial in November 2003, the three-judge panel found that New York's redistricting plan did not violate the Voting Rights Act or the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In November 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed by summary order.

Berman was part of a three-judge panel that heard challenges to obscenity provisions of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. In July 2005, the Court found that the Act was not overbroad and did not violate the First Amendment. In March 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed by summary order.

U.S. Circuit Court Opinions

In April 2014, Berman—sitting by designation on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit—authored the panel's opinion reinstating a securities fraud class action brought by pension funds against Barclays PLC and former Barclays' CEO Robert Diamond. Plaintiffs alleged that defendants had knowingly submitted false and inaccurate information to establish LIBOR rates during the class period of August 2007 through January 2009. The Court adopted the principle that "so long as the falsehood remains uncorrected, it will continue to taint the total mix of available public information, and the market will continue to attribute the artificial inflation to the stock, day after day."

In August 2014, Berman—sitting by designation on a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit—heard the appeal of an employee who had been terminated from her job. The Court of Appeals held that the district court correctly awarded summary judgment to plaintiff on her COBRA claims and to Books-A-Million with respect to plaintiff's Title VII and Equal Pay Act claims, but erred in dismissing plaintiff's FMLA claims. The Court of Appeals found that "[i]if a trial court refuses to grant further legal or equitable relief to a plaintiff who insists that such relief is necessary to make the plaintiff whole, it must articulate its rationale."

In July 2002, Berman—sitting by designation on a panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals—heard the appeal of New England Insurance Company, following the district court's reversal of a jury verdict in favor of New England Insurance. The Second Circuit reinstated the jury verdict. "We necessarily disagree with the 'clear liability' language []introduced by the district court in deciding Healthcare's post-trial application for judgment as a matter of law. As noted, 'clear liability' was specifically rejected and abandoned [and] there is no case since Pavia in which a court held that a finding of clear liability was given conclusive or totally dispositive weight."

Publications and Teaching

Berman has authored a number of articles about children, including A Team Model To Identify Child Abuse, Seven Steps To Protect Children, Community Service for Juvenile Offenders, and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Published in the New York Law Journal, these articles offer guidance in developing improved models for identifying child abuse, bolstering the child welfare system, implementing community service-based sentencing options for juvenile offenders, and improving the process for obtaining special immigrant juvenile status.

Berman's efforts in improving media access to the Family Court system and promoting community service have been cited in the New York Daily News and Newsday. See, e.g., Sun Also Rises in Family Court, Helping Other Helps Teens, Embracing Community Service for Juveniles, and A New Way Out of Trouble.

Berman lectured about the "Rule of Law" before judges in Albania in 2013. He has also moderated a panel discussion of the "Rule of Law" at an international legal symposium in Istanbul, Turkey in 2014.

Federal Court Involvement in Supervised Release

Berman has been actively involved in the supervised release of all defendants (201) whom he sentenced to incarceration. Between January 1, 2020, and June 18, 2024, Berman has conducted over 960 supervised release hearings.

Drawing upon his MSW studies and Family Court experience, this Court Involved Supervised Release project has produced positive supervised release outcomes (regarding recidivism/desistance and successful termination of supervision) which are detailed in five written reports, dated April 2021, September 2021, April 2022, October 2022, and June 2024.

On October 13, 2021, Berman participated on a panel with the Honorable L. Felipe Restrepo for the Penn Program on Regulation titled How Judges Can Make a Difference in the Success of Supervised Release.

Awards

Berman received the National Association of Social Workers (NYC) Emerald award for 20 years of leadership as a licensed social worker and judge on March 28, 2019.