States Attorney.

Sean R. Berry

Sean R. Berry states attorney Northern District of Iowa

A new Chief Federal Law Enforcement Officer is appointed in the Office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. Sean R. Berry is to serve as Acting U.S. Attorney by virtue of the Vacancies Reform Act, following the stepping down of former U.S. Attorney Peter E. Deegan, whose resignation was tendered on February 9, 2021. Acting U.S. Attorney Sean Berry will transition into the position and officially take over on February 17, 2021. He shall remain serving in the capacity until December 14, 2021, or up to the time that President-elect Joe Biden is able to successfully appoint a new U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.

 

Educational Background and Early Professional Career

Acting U.S. Attorney Berry is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame – Mendoza College of Business, earning his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1982. Prior to attending law school, U.S. Attorney Sean Berry first served as a Certified Public Accountant at the Ernst & Whinney Limited from June 1982 to July 1984. He then went to the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and subsequently received his Juris Doctorate in 1987.

 

National and International Lectures and pieces of training

With his practical and thorough knowledge, U.S. Attorney Berry has been an active instructor and lecturer in the country and overseas. He has given Federal Criminal Practice lessons to law undergraduates as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Iowa College of Law. Apart from being a professor, U.S. Attorney Sean Berry has also served as an instructor for the Department of Justice on numerous occasions held both locally and internationally, including frequently teaching Trial Advocacy classes as a part of the National Advocacy Center Training Program in Columbia. Among the countries where he has given speeches are Malaysia and Indonesia, wherein he shared his acquired knowledge on investigating and prosecuting computer crimes. U.S. Attorney Berry has also provided training on corporate criminal liability to prosecutors and judges in Macedonia. He has given lessons and training to local prosecutors and law enforcement officials in Bangladesh, particularly on investigation and prosecution competency and efficiency.

 

Legal Career

Top Federal Prosecutor Sean Berry launched his legal career as an Attorney at Law and Civil Litigator at the Musick, Peeler & Garrett – a firm founded to aid businesses in California in national and international legal matters, particularly in practice areas such as business litigation, health care, insurance, real estate, among others. He worked in the firm for almost two years, from August of 1987 to June of 1989, prior to joining the Department of Justice Office. U.S. Attorney Berry has provided a long and dedicated public service as a Department of Justice’s skilled attorney. His over 31 years of impeccable legal career consists of serving in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California for the first ten years. In this capacity, he was in charge of prosecuting many complex cases, including those that involved insider-trading, public corruption, and securities fraud. Acting U.S. Attorney Berry was also once given a leadership position in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. He was appointed as the Chief of the Major Frauds Section of its Criminal Division.

In 1999, his great and faithful years of service in the Office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa began. For more than 19 years, he served in numerous positions, including being an Assistant United States Attorney. Sean Berry was also given the opportunity to serve as the Chief of the Office’s Criminal Division, responsible for overseeing and managing all day-to-day operations, investigations, and prosecutions. In the latter half of his legal career, Berry served as the First Assistant United States Attorney to former U.S. Attorney Kevin Techau and was tasked to take over in the Office as Acting U.S. Attorney when Techau was asked to step down in March of 2017, in response to the transition from the Obama to the Trump Administration. U.S. Attorney Sean Berry remained in position for about six months until former U.S. Attorney Peter E. Deegan was successfully appointed to being the Chief Federal Law Enforcement Officer for the Northern District of Iowa on September 22, 2017. For six months, Sean Berry excellently led the Office and has made a commendable partnership with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, which helped in the Office’s goal to focus on gun-related violence at the time. As second in command to former U.S. Attorney Deegan, Sean Berry has led the Office to emphasize prosecutions of violent crime, opioids and methamphetamine trafficking, false claims act, and elder justice.

 

Honors and Awards

Throughout his admirable and top-notch public service, Acting U.S. Attorney Sean Berry has been commended for his dependable traits and exceptional skills. He was once acclaimed for his extensive experience in prosecuting complex white-collar crime and child exploitation cases. He was awarded the Director’s Award for Superior Performance in recognition of the successful indictment of James Bentley. The latter has been convicted of child exploitation and was sentenced to 100 years in prison. For the second time, he was recently awarded the Director’s Award for Superior Performance following the victory in the three-month trial involving a $100 million bank and securities fraud case, in line with the financial fraud issue at the Financial News Network and United Press International.

 

Office Jurisdiction

As the incumbent Chief Federal Law Enforcement Officer of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa, Sean R. Berry is in charge of overseeing a staff of approximately 46 employees composed of 25 talented attorneys and 21 dedicated support personnel. Moreover, he is responsible for leading the Office, particularly in the investigation and prosecution of federal crimes, and in representing the United States in all criminal litigations and civil matters within the district’s jurisdiction.

 

Contact Details

Full Name: Sean R. Berry
District/State: Northern District of Iowa
Public email ID: N/A

Cedar Rapids Branch Office

111 7th Ave, S.E.
Cedar Rapids, IA 52401

(319) 363-6333
Main

(319) 363-1990
Fax

(319) 286-9258
TTY

Sioux City Branch Office

600 4th Street,
Sioux City, IA 51101

(712) 255-6011
Main

(712) 252-2034
Fax

(712) 258-4761
TTY

Public Information Officer

Tony Morfitt

(319) 363-6333
Main

Delivery Service

Cedar Rapids Branch Office

U.S. Attorney’s Office
111 7th Ave, S.E.
Box #1
Cedar Rapids, IA 52401

Sioux City Branch Office

U.S. Attorney’s Office
Ho-Chunk Building, Suite 670
600 4th Street
Sioux City, IA 51101

 

Social Media Profiles of Sean Berry

LinkedIn

Username: Sean Berry
URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-berry-62409b77/

Twitter Field

Username: U.S. Attorney N. Iowa
Tag: @USAO_NDIA
URL: https://twitter.com/usao_ndia

Updated: February 23, 2021

 

Timothy T. Duax is the next State’s Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. Read his biography here.

Updated: November 4, 2022

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