Mark A. Berman is Chair of HDRB&B’s Litigation and White-Collar Criminal Defense Groups. He has almost 30 years of experience as a trial attorney and appellate litigator representing individual, corporate, and government clients in complex business litigation, federal criminal cases, trusts & estates litigation, shareholder disputes, employment litigation, and guardianship actions in the state and federal courts in New Jersey and New York. Mark is a vigorous and creative legal advocate for his clients, but insists on giving them candid, objective advice. In business cases, he encourages clients to be reasonable in their demands and expectations of what can be accomplished by way of litigation in a fallible judicial system. In criminal cases, Mark is not afraid to speak truth to power; he believes that advocating for the rights of criminal defendants ultimately protects the liberty of the innocent, as envisioned by the country’s founders.
Mark routinely works with (and against) other large firms and many of his cases have been national and international in scope. For the past 11 years, Mark has been selected to the list of “Top 100” Super Lawyers® in New Jersey. Mark also has been recognized by “The Best Lawyers in America ®” for Criminal Defense: White-Collar since 2021.
Mark has tried cases to verdict in the District of New Jersey, the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and the District of Massachusetts. He has briefed over 50 appeals in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Third Circuit, Fourth Circuit, Seventh Circuit, and Federal Circuit, the New Jersey Supreme Court, and the New Jersey and New York Appellate Divisions. He has handled cases in the federal courts in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, Washington DC, California, and South Carolina.
Mark serves as a trustee of the Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey. He has been selected by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey to serve on its Criminal Justice Act (CJA) Panel for approximately 20 years. He also is regularly appointed to handle CJA appeals by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, including two appeals in death penalty prosecutions.
After graduating from Columbia University Law School, Mark clerked for the Honorable Leonard I. Garth on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and then joined Weil, Gotshal & Manges, in New York City, as a litigation associate. Prior to joining HDRB&B, Mark was a partner at Gibbons, P.C., one of New Jersey’s largest law firms. During his tenure at Gibbons, he served as the firm’s hiring partner and as staffing partner for the White-Collar Criminal Law Department.
Mark holds a master’s degree in International Law & Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is proficient in Hebrew and has represented the State of Israel and several Israeli high-tech and other companies in connection with U.S. legal matters. He represented a Qatari national, Ali Salah Kalah al-Marri, one of three individuals designated in the United States as an “enemy combatant,” in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and incarcerated in the Naval Consolidated Brig in North Charleston, South Carolina, in a case that challenged the assertion by the President of the power to militarily detain an individual present in the United States based solely upon an executive order. Mark also represented al-Marri’s brother, Jarallah, who was arrested in Afghanistan and detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GITMO) for several years before being released.
Mark and the firm provide pro bono representation to worthwhile causes. For example, Mark offers general counsel to Pony Power Therapies, Inc. (a nonprofit organization that uses horses and an accessible farm to enhance the physical, social and emotional well-being of children and adults who need extra support), the Community Alliance for Jewish-Affiliated Cemeteries (which works to restore and sustain Jewish Cemeteries in the New York Tri-State area), and several organic farms and related ventures in New York State.