Sheila Berman 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 ending the scourge of global human trafficking by creating tailored concrete practical solutions and reliable research to address the extreme exploitation of men, women, and children in both sex and labor trafficking. She has drafted anti-human trafficking legislation and trained police, prosecutors, judges, immigration officers, civil society, and government officials on human trafficking skills and issues in over a dozen countries around the globe including Burma, Haiti, Ghana, Malaysia, and Mongolia.

Ms. Berman served as a Federal Prosecutor with the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section from 2000 to 2006, handling criminal civil rights cases including human trafficking, hate crimes, 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, securing a 51-count conviction at trial.

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. Her first and formative trial experiences came during her tenure as a prosecutor in Washington, DC Juvenile Court 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.