Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse
231 W. Lafayette Blvd., Room 701
Detroit, MI 48226

Courtroom: Room 709
Chambers Telephone: (313) 234-2640
Chambers Fax: (313) 234-2645

Case Manager: Teresa McGovern (313) 234-2644

Practice Guidelines

Biography

Terrence Berg was appointed to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan by President Barack Obama in 2012.

Judge Berg graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University, where he studied history and international affairs, in 1981. After graduation, he worked as a volunteer for one year with the Jesuits in Nicaragua. He earned his law degree at Georgetown as well, where he was elected as Editor-in-Chief of the international law journal.

After law school, he clerked for the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, the Honorable Anthony A. Alaimo, who had been a World War II hero. Following his clerkship, Judge Berg practiced law in the Washington, D.C. office of Debevoise & Plimpton, 1987-1989.

In 1989, Judge Berg returned to Michigan to join the United States Attorney’s Office as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. As a federal prosecutor, Berg handled a wide variety of federal criminal prosecutions, specializing in complex fraud cases and computer, Internet and intellectual property crimes.

In 1999, Michigan Attorney General (later Governor) Jennifer M. Granholm appointed Berg as Chief of the Attorney General’s newly created High Tech Crime Unit, in order to respond to the growing problem of Internet crime. While serving in this position, Berg was detailed to work with the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.

Berg returned to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan in 2003, where he was promoted to First Assistant U.S. Attorney in 2005. He served as interim United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan from August 2008 until January 2010.

Later in 2010, Berg was tapped by the Department of Justice to serve as the acting First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, in Macon, Georgia, and later by the Office of Deputy Attorney General in Washington to work as an attorney for the Professional Misconduct Review Unit, which was responsible for recommending discipline for prosecutors found to have committed professional misconduct. He was nominated by President Obama on April 25, 2012 to the United States District Court and confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on December 6, 2012.

Berg taught courses in computer crime and trial practice at the University of Detroit-Mercy School of Law from 1994-2012, and has guest lectured at University of Michigan, Wayne State, Michigan State, and Western Michigan (Thomas M. Cooley), law schools. He taught at the National Advocacy Center, in Columbia, South Carolina, the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and the Prosecuting Attorney=s Associations of Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, and Utah. He has also trained prosecutors in Bangkok, Thailand, Sofia, Bulgaria, and Cebu, Philippines, and judges in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. His writings have appeared in law reviews, state bar publications, and national magazines.

Berg was born in Detroit in 1959. He is married to Anita M. Sevier and they have three grown children. They live in Detroit and are active in their church and community.