Mark A. Berman is Chair of HDRB&B’s Litigation and White-Collar Criminal Defense Departments. He has over 25 years of experience as a trial attorney and appellate litigator representing individual and corporate clients in complex business litigation, federal criminal cases, trusts & estates litigation, shareholder disputes, and employment litigation in the state and federal courts in New Jersey and New York. 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 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 handled over 35 appeals in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Third Circuit, Fourth Circuit, and Seventh Circuit, and has handled civil and criminal cases in the federal courts in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, Washington DC, and South Carolina. Additionally, Mark has arbitrated cases in Florida, New York, and New Jersey.
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 over 15 years. He also is regularly appointed to handle 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 HDRBB, 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 has represented the Republic of Ecuador and the State of Israel in cases with international implications. Mark is proficient in Hebrew and represents the State of Israel and several Israeli high-tech and other companies in connection with U.S. legal matters. He also 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. Mark also represented al-Marri’s brother, Jarallah, who was arrested in Afghanistan and detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GITMO).
Mark provides pro bono representation to worthwhile causes. For example, he provides general counsel to Forest Creatures Entertainment, Inc., organizer of INPUT 2018 (the annual international conference of public television program makers and broadcasters), Pony Power Therapies, Inc. (a non-profit organization giving special needs and at-risk children and adults a unique opportunity to ride, care for and interact with horses, to enhance their physical, social and emotional well-being in a safe, nurturing farm environment), and several organic farms and related ventures in New York State.
Mark and his wife, Tami, have 4 adult children, 3 dogs, 1 cat, 30 chickens, 15 ducks, 8 geese, 6 turkeys, and 5 sheep.