Who appointed Richard M. Berman?

President William J. Clinton appointed Richard M. Berman to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1998.

Was Richard M. Berman appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Richard M. Berman was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Richard M. Berman's confirmation vote?

Richard M. Berman was confirmed by voice vote on October 21, 1998. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Southern District of New York / Appointed 1998 / Senior status since 2011

Richard M. Berman

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1998 and confirmed by voice vote, Richard M. Berman is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He earned a law degree from New York University School of Law in 1967. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1943 · age 83
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1998
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Cornell 1964 · New York Law 1967
Succeeded: Kevin Thomas Duffy
Succeeded by: Nelson Stephen Román

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1998	Southern District of New York succeeded Kevin Thomas Duffy	Clinton (D)	Voice vote

Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.

Confirmation vote

Voice vote

The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.

Education

Cornell University	B.S.	1964
New York University School of Law	J.D.	1967
Fordham University Graduate School of Social Services	M.S.W.	1996

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Berman was assigned 3,680 district-court cases (1989–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 245 days across 3,632 closed cases.

Contract23%

Civil rights16%

Labor & ERISA10%

Prisoner & habeas9%

Antitrust, securities & banking8%

Other federal statutes8%

Other26%

Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.

On appeal

Of 169 of Berman’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 134 were affirmed, 21 reversed or vacated, and 14 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.

In our data, Berman authored 146 published opinions for the court (1999–2011). Most cited: In Re Health Management Systems, Inc. Securities Litigation (358 citations).

A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Recent & notable rulings

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
2000	In Re Health Management Systems, Inc. Securities Litigation	113 F. Supp. 2d 613	358
2004	Cruz v. Barnhart	343 F. Supp. 2d 218	137
2003	Mende v. Milestone Technology, Inc.	269 F. Supp. 2d 246	93
2007	New York Times Co. v. United States Department of Defense	499 F. Supp. 2d 501	65
2002	Walker v. Vaughan	216 F. Supp. 2d 290	56
2011	ALL-STAR MARKETING GROUP, LLC v. Media Brands Co.	775 F. Supp. 2d 613	53
2000	La Torres v. Walker	216 F. Supp. 2d 157	48
2007	Caiafa v. Sea Containers Ltd.	525 F. Supp. 2d 398	32
2002	Weizmann Institute of Science v. Neschis	229 F. Supp. 2d 234	32
2001	U-Neek, Inc. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.	147 F. Supp. 2d 158	29
2000	Dubai Islamic Bank v. Citibank, N.A.	126 F. Supp. 2d 659	28
2003	Gmurzynska v. Hutton	257 F. Supp. 2d 621	27
2002	Epstein v. Kemper Insurance Companies	210 F. Supp. 2d 308	25
2008	Burns v. Bank of America	655 F. Supp. 2d 240	23
2001	Bryant v. New York State Department of Correction Services Albany	146 F. Supp. 2d 422	23

Showing the 15 most-cited of 146 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.

Questions & answers

Who appointed Richard M. Berman?: President William J. Clinton appointed Richard M. Berman to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1998.
Was Richard M. Berman appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Richard M. Berman was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Richard M. Berman's confirmation vote?: Richard M. Berman was confirmed by voice vote on October 21, 1998. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Richard M. Berman on?: Richard M. Berman is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.

27 years on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).