Richard Berman

United States District Senior Judge, Southern District of New York

Judge Richard M. Berman has been a United States district judge for the Southern District of New York since November 1998 and a senior judge since September 2011. He received a B.S. degree from Cornell University in 1964, a J.D. degree in 1967 from N.Y.U. School of Law, and an M.S.W. degree in May of 1996 from the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service. He also received a Diploma of Comparative Law in 1968 and a Diploma of International Law in 1970 from the University of Stockholm Faculty of Law, while he was an American Scandinavian Foundation Fellow.

Judge Berman was an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell from 1970 to 1974. He served as executive assistant to United States Senator Jacob K. Javits from 1974 to 1978. In 1978, he became general counsel to Warner Cable Corporation (and also to MTV Networks Inc. in 1984). In 1986, Judge Berman became a partner at LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, and he was managing partner of LeBoeuf Lamb's Los Angeles office from 1989 to 1991. He was appointed as New York State Family Court Judge (Queens County) in 1995. And, he was appointed Federal District Court Judge (SDNY) in November 1998.

While serving as a district judge, Judge Berman has developed a program of court-involved supervised release. This program is designed to assist every person previously sentenced to incarceration by Judge Berman to safely and successfully reintegrate into the community.

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