John Stevens Berry Sr.

John Stevens Berry Sr. is an American attorney and the founder of Berry Law Firm in Lincoln, Nebraska. He is notable for a number of high-profile cases including the defense of Green Berets in Vietnam.[1] Berry graduated from New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1956. In 1960, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, where in 1958 he won the Academy of American Poets Prize.[3] He went on to earn his Juris Doctor degree from Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois in 1965 and was admitted to the Nebraska State Bar in 1965. Berry graduated from the Infantry Officer School at Fort Benning, Georgia, and Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia. As a Captain in Vietnam, Berry was awarded the Bronze Star and the Vietnamese Medal of Honor First Class (Gold). He served as defense counsel with the 1st Infantry Division, the 1st Cavalry Division, the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, the 101st Airborne, the 82nd Airborne, and the 5th Special Forces on a temporary basis. Berry is recognized in the New Mexico Military Institute Hall of Fame. He is also the recipient of the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry (with Palm) and the recipient for the FBI Award for Service in the Public Interest. In Vietnam from 1968 to 1969, Berry was the chief defense counsel for the largest general court martial jurisdiction in Vietnam, II Field Force Vietnam, numbering more than 80,000 soldiers.[2] His work on the defense counsel includes the "Green Beret Affair",[4] where in 1969 members of the Green Berets were charged with the murder of a double agent.