Mr. Thomas S. Berg, Government Lawyer

Tom Berg is a "naturalized Texan" coming from five generations of Texans but born in Washington, DC and raised in Mexico while his father worked in federal public service.  After completing high school at the American School in Mexico City, Tom returned to Houston to attend Rice University where he graduated with a BA in History and Political Science.  His law degree comes from the University of Houston and he recently completed a Masters in Strategic Studies at the United States Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.  Tom is admitted to practice in Texas as well as federal courts for the Southern District of Texas,  the Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals, various military courts of appeals,  and the United States Supreme Court.  Following the family impulse toward public service, Tom spent twenty-seven years at the Federal Public Defender's Office in Houston including nineteen years as First Assistant.

Tom is active in the State Bar of Texas, Houston Bar Association, the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association where he is in his second term on the board of directors.  Tom is also an active reservist in the United States Army with the rank of Colonel and serves as a military judge in the United States Army Trial Judiciary.  He is a combat veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns as well as the peacekeeping operation in Bosnia-Herzegovina.  Colonel Berg has twice been decorated with the Bronze Star Medal among his other military awards.  His commitment to due process and fair play and his willingness to stand up to arrogant power were profiled by the PBS program Frontline during its investigation into torture issues at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where Tom was an embattled Army lawyer in early 2002.  See http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/interviews/berg.html.  More recently Tom was the liaison between Coalition detention operations and the Iraqi judiciary in Baghdad.