Joel Berger is a lawyer in private practice in midtown Manhattan.  He has been a civil rights and criminal defense lawyer for 40 years, representing the underprivileged in unpopular cases.  He has argued and won cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, nearly half the United States Courts of Appeals, and the New York State Court of Appeals, as well as trying numerous complex matters in the lower courts.  In 1996 he entered private practice, concentrating on civil rights cases.

            Recently Mr. Berger argued and won an important case in the New York State Court of Appeals in Albany, the State’s highest court, expanding the ability of persons exonerated of crimes to win compensation under the State’s Unjust Conviction Law (Court of Claims Act § 8-b).  Long v. State of New York, 7 NY3d 269, 819 NYS2d 679 (2006).  The decision reversed several rulings of the Appellate Division, Second Department, that for many years had limited the ability of individuals exonerated in Brooklyn and Queens cases to collect damages.  As a result of that decision, Mr. Berger obtained settlements totaling $950,000 for Mr. Long for the 5 years he had spent in State Prison. $900,000 came from a legal malpractice action against lawyers who had initially mishandled Mr. Long’s case in the Court of Claims.  

           Mr. Berger has also won approximately $7.3 million from the City of New York to date in cases alleging false arrest, malicious prosecution, excessive force and sexual harassment by police officers. Several additional cases of this nature are pending.   He also obtained one of the largest sanctions awards ever assessed against the City, James v. City of New York, 1998 WL 677583 (SDNY 1998), and defeated a subsequent effort by the City to disqualify him from representing clients in police cases.  Robbins v. City of New York, 98 Civ. 5331 (JSR) (SDNY January 19, 1999).
Another retaliatory effort by the Giuliani Administration, seeking to remove him from an adjunct teaching position at the New York University School of Law, was also unsuccessful.  See New York Times, January 22, 2008, p. A16.  Other prominent cases in recent years have included (i) a federal civil rights action on behalf of a former New York State inmate convicted on the basis of police perjury, settled for $650,000; (ii) a sexual harassment case on behalf of three female New York City police officers, also settled for $650,000; and (iii) a wrongful death action alleging that a woman inmate on Rikers Island had died due to inadequate medical care and inattention by correction officers, settled for $400,000.

          Mr. Berger’s general litigation matters in private practice have included a lawsuit on behalf of a prominent private hospital against the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (settled for a half-million dollars), a civil RICO action on behalf of a major publishing corporation, an appeal to compel arbitration of a dispute over computer software royalties, litigation over the profits of a defunct partnership, defense of a state’s suspension of a prominent trainer of thoroughbred racehorses, defense of a real estate firm in a proceeding before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, defense of a community college-related enterprises in employment discrimination and personal injury actions, and representation of a physician in investigations by the State Office of Professional Medical Conduct and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.  He continues to represent corporate clients and institutions, in addition to individuals alleging brutality and other forms of police misconduct.

            Joel Berger graduated from Columbia College in 1965 and the University of Chicago Law School in 1968.  In 1972, at age 28, he won his first United States Supreme Court case, reversing a Brooklyn murder conviction.  That year he also founded the Legal Aid Society's Prisoners' Rights Project, and tried the class action that led to the closing of the notorious "Tombs" jail in lower Manhattan by a U.S. District Judge and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  He later obtained injunctions against the City's other jails, outlawing over-crowding and other unsafe and unsanitary conditions.  He has continued to this day to represent prisoners, and his knowledge of the harsh realities of prison life played a major role in obtaining the $950,000 in settlements for Mr. Long’s five years of unjust imprisonment.

            Shortly after the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, Mr. Berger joined the staff of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and became one of its specialists in the defense of death row prisoners.  He argued and won cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals that reversed the death sentences of more than 200 individuals, mostly in the deep South.  Some of these death-sentenced prisoners were later exonerated, including one, whose case was depicted in the documentary film “The Thin Blue Line,” whom he helped represent in the U.S. Supreme Court.  He also represented clients against the Reagan Administration in civil rights cases concerning affirmative action, integration of higher educational institutions, and enforcement of the federal Voting Rights Act.  And he continued to represent prisoners in class actions, including a case against the notorious Texas prison system.

            From 1988-96 Mr. Berger was one of the highest-ranking executives in New York City's Law Department (the office of the Corporation Counsel).   He served under three Mayors and four Corporation Counsels.  In the Dinkins Administration he was assigned the task of monitoring cases of police and prosecutorial misconduct, to identify those cases in which the City should refuse to represent police officers and prosecutors because they had in fact engaged in misconduct, including cases in which they ignored evidence that tended to exonerate convicted individuals.  This role led to his determination to devote a significant portion of his private practice to this field.

            Mr. Berger was also the Dinkins Administration's leading lawyer in numerous high-profile cases on behalf of the City of New York.  Examples include the City's challenge to Staten Island's effort to secede; U.S. Justice Department proceedings and litigation related to the City Charter revision that abolished the “Board of Estimate,” increased the power of the City Council, and approved a redistricting that substantially increased Latino and African American representation on the Council; and proceedings concerning community school board elections and federal Voting Rights Act Spanish and Asian language ballot requirements. He also represented the City in class action lawsuits concerning the Human Resources Administration's operation of the foster care system and the Board of Education's procedures for evaluating and educating handicapped children, and an environmental action leading to reforms at the Fresh Kills Landfill before its eventual closure.

            In addition to practicing law, Mr. Berger serves on the Committee on Civil Litigation of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (the District covering Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Nassau and Suffolk), appointed by the Chief Judge.  For 10 years he taught public-sector litigation as an Adjunct Clinical Professor at the New York University (NYU) School of Law, and has served as Chair of the Committee on Government Ethics of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and as a member of the Board of Directors of Citizens’ Union.  He is the author of several articles, including two Op Ed columns in the New York Times and one in the Wall Street Journal about police misconduct.  He has also spoken at many law school forums and continuing education programs for lawyers, both in New York City and nationally, and is a frequent guest on television and radio programs.

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