Sheila Berman, Esq., currently serves as both Senior Advisor on Law & Policy for The Warnath Group and Deputy Director of NEXUS Institute. The focus of her work is on global human trafficking. Ms. Berman has drafted anti-human trafficking legislation and trained police, immigration officers, prosecutors, and judges on human trafficking skills and issues in over a dozen countries worldwide,  including Burma, Haiti, Ghana, Malaysia, and Mongolia.

Ms. Berman served as a Federal Prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section from 2000 to 2006, handling criminal, civil rights cases including hate crimes, human trafficking, and police brutality. In 2003 Ms. Berman successfully tried a case against a defendant who was simultaneously on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted and the U.S. Marshals Service 15 Most Wanted lists.

From 2006 to 2012, Ms. Berman had a solo law practice in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. There she helped everyday people navigate the law, handling everything from civil plaintiff litigation to criminal defense work, family law, and small business formation. On occasion, Ms. Berman had the pleasure of trying cases alongside her father, a solo practitioner for over 50 years.

Ms. Berman’s first and formative trial experiences came during her tenure as a juvenile criminal prosecutor for the District of Columbia from 1997 to 2000. Her trials included cases of murder, armed assault, sexual abuse, robbery, and drug distribution.

Ms. Berman is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law.