Biography
Professor Berger has been a visiting professor of law at South Bank Polytechnic, London, and at Kyoto University, Japan, and a scholar-in-residence at the University of London and Washington University in St. Louis.
Professor Berger established the Films For Justice Institute in 1995. Through the Institute, Professor Berger produced three educational documentary films in the series, Lessons from Woburn: The Untold Stories with Henry Wigglesworth (2000), The Rules of Procedure (2002), and Conduct and Settlement (2002). These documentaries are about a lawsuit, Anderson v. W.R. Grace, brought by families in Woburn, Massachusetts, alleging contamination of their drinking water. The original participants appear in the documentary, based on the lawsuit, and, the book about the lawsuit by Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action, and the Hollywood movie by the same name. The films are used in 100+ law schools.
Professor Berger is the Director of the Comprehensive Trial Advocacy Program and also the Director of Films for Justice Institute at Seattle University School of Law.
Professor Berger is co-author (with Professors John Mitchell, Ronald Clark, and Monique Leahy) of Pretrial Advocacy: Planning, Analysis, and Strategy (Aspen, 3rd Ed, 2010). Along with co-authors, John Mitchell and Ronald Clark, she also authored Trial Advocacy: Planning, Analysis, and Strategy (Aspen, 2nd Ed. 2008), Trial Advocacy: Assignments and Case Files (Aspen, 2008). As part of those of those books, Berger with co-authors produced a DVD - a two hour film, The Freck Wrongful Death case, that is based on a real case. Another DVD also produced with the books shows a model deposition and the scene of a criminal-civil shooting in a tavern. The books and DVD's are featured on the authors' website.
Professor Berger lectures and writes in the areas of gender, film and the law, and advocacy, exploring issues about the relationship of storytelling and its intersection with law.
She wrote, co-directed, and produced the documentary, Out of the Ashes: 9/11 which is about 9/11 families and their experiences with the Victim Compensation Fund and litigation. Eleven days after the terrorist attack, the federal government put in place the largest public entitlement program to compensate victims of terrorist attacks: The Victim Compensation Fund. Out of the Ashes: 9/11 highlights the stories of seven families and provides an unprecedented window into the psychology of harm and justice. The documentary explores key legal and societal issues such as: Was giving the claimants money a misguided failure or a lifeline to survival? Did the Fund undermine our legal system, or did it offer 9/11 families justice by avoiding lawsuits?
