Thomas S. Berkley

Over the previous 25 years, Tom has represented a variety of maritime and waterfront centric businesses, government entities, and individuals in Virginia and North Carolina including public and private marine terminals, shipyards and custom boat builders, international ship lines, salvors, stevedores, intermodal cargo interests, commercial fishing companies and associations, tug and barge companies, marine construction, engineering, manufacturing, and transportation companies, municipalities, recreational boaters, and several insurance companies and P&I Clubs.

His practice includes federal and state litigation and appeals as well as administrative hearings and their associated appeals. He has prevailed in cases before the Virginia Supreme Court and the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. He has years of experience in the maritime and admiralty, employment, environmental, corporate, government contract, and federal and state workers compensation fields.  He currently serves as general counsel for some of his maritime clients.

The Maritime Law Association of the United States has designated Tom as a Proctor in Admiralty. He currently serves on the Board of Colonna’s Ship Yard Incorporated, on the Board of the Norfolk Propeller Club, as the Chair of the Events Committee of the Virginia Maritime Association, as a member of the Offshore Wind Committee of the Virginia Maritime Association, and as a member of the National Maritime Day Committee of the Norfolk Propeller Club.

During his high school and undergraduate years, Tom served as a deckhand on tugboats working the James River, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Atlantic Coast. In college, he also took opportunities to live and study in London and to operate a campus wide vending machine business. Upon graduating from the University of Virginia, he completed the McIntire Business Institute program offered by his alma mater. During law school at the College of William & Mary, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Lydia C. Taylor of the Norfolk Circuit Court, wrote for the Environmental Law Journal, and interned for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C.