.Sam joined Berse Law, LLC in September 2017. He graduated cum laude from the Seton Hall University School of Law in 2015, and thereafter completed two one-year clerkships: in 2016-2017 for the now-presiding Appellate Division Judge Marie P. Simonelli, P.J.A.D. (then-J.A.D.); and, in 2015-2016 for the Honorable Lisa M. Vignuolo, J.S.C. in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Middlesex County, Family Part. Sam’s experience working for the judiciary has given him extraordinary insight into the minds and perspectives of judges who preside over family law matters and adjudicate appeals. He is a proponent of mediation to resolve matters quickly and amicably, but in more litigious circumstances, his expertise allows him to counsel clients both in preparation for court and on what must be proven to the court in order to prevail.

In 2021, he received the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Young Lawyer’s Division Professional Achievement Award. In 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, he was selected by New Jersey Super Lawyers as a Rising Star. Sam was selected for Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in 2024. Jenny and Sam Berse have been selected by the readers of New Jersey Family as two of New Jersey’s Best Lawyers for Families and are featured in the April 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 issues, and are in the 2024 issue as well.

Sam is admitted to the New Jersey State Bar, New York State Bar, and New Jersey Federal District Court.  He is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) and serves as the Union County Representative for the Young Lawyers Division (YLD) Executive Committee, which is a voting member position of the NJSBA YLD Executive Committee.  He will be sworn in as NJSBA YLD Secretary at the NJSBA Convention in May, 2024.  He is also Co-Chair of the NJSBA YLD Seminars Committee responsible for planning CLE events throughout the year including at the annual NJSBA Convention in May, and at the 2022 NJSBA Mid-Year meeting in Key West, where he created and moderated a seminar entitled “Financial Concerns with Special Needs Children” which he again moderated at the 2023 NJSBA Convention in Atlantic City.  In addition to having spoken at several NJICLE family law seminars, Sam spoke on a panel at the 2023 Family Law Retreat in Scottsdale, and also led his team to victory there in “Scottsdale Squares.”  Sam recently spoke on October 20, 2023, at the Middlesex County Bar Association’s Family Law CLE Program, “Non-Dissolution/FD Docket” seminar, and also on November 17, 2023 at the NJAJ Meadowlands Seminar 2023, Matrimonial Law seminar “Child Support Above the Guidelines”.  At the NJSBA Annual Convention in May 2024, Sam will be moderating: Best Practices Make Perfect: Law Firm Management, Structure, Disputes, and Succession Planning, a newly created YLD-sponsored CLE which will explore basic law firm management, structure, disputes, and succession planning. 

Sam also serves as the New Jersey Bar Foundation Union County Mock Trial Coordinator for the annual Vincent J. Apruzzese High School Mock Trial Competition, which he has done for the past 4 years. .
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He is an active ESP Panelist in Middlesex County and alternate ESP panelist in Union County and a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association, the Union County Bar Association, the Middlesex County Bar Association, the Burlington County Bar Association, the AFCC – Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, New Jersey Chapter, the Aldona E. Appleton Family Law Inn of Court, the Barry Croland Family Law Inn of Court, and, the New Jersey Association for Justice (NJAJ).  He has completed numerous continuing education classes far in excess of the attorney CLE requirements. 

While attending law school, Mr. Berse served as a Notes Editor on the Seton Hall Legislative Journal where he published on the topic of patent office practice following the United States Supreme Court’s opinion in Association of Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. holding that genes are not patentable. He completed judicial internships for Justice Anne M. Patterson of the New Jersey Supreme Court, and Magistrate Judge Steven C. Mannion and District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo of the District Court of New Jersey. Additionally, he worked in the in-house legal department of Amicus Therapeutics for two years while attending law school. During law school, he participated in the SDNY Representation in Mediation Practicum where he obtained one of the highest settlements in the program’s history for a client in a Title VII employment discrimination case.

Although he now focuses his practice on family law matters, he is a patent attorney licensed before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and holds a Master of Biomedical Sciences degree from the Rutgers Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (legacy-RWJ GSBS) and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Kean University where he graduated summa cum laude with a 4.00 GPA. He is also a certified EMT-B and a retired member of his town’s Volunteer Rescue Squad after over seven years, and a lifetime member of Mensa.
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Sam views his approach to the law as somewhat of a visionary. Jenny and Sam Berse have published a 3-part article series in the NJSBA’s New Jersey Family Lawyer magazine: “Bankruptcy and Divorce: Exceptions to Dischargeability” appeared in the February 2020 edition; “Bankruptcy and Divorce: Getting Counsel Fees Added to Probation Arrears” appeared in the March 2020 edition; and “Bankruptcy and Divorce: The Complexities of Collecting Counsel Fees (or any Judgment) through Wage Execution” appeared in the January 2022 edition. In the January 2023 edition we published an article titled “Cohabitation and Alimony: From Then to Now into the Future.”

Sam co-authored in NJSBA’s Dictum, the newsletter of the NJSBA Young Lawyers Division, “Marriage Story (2019): A Movie Review From a Legal Perspective” which appeared in the Winter 2021 edition.

Sam is frequently retained to represent litigants on appeal, often when he is not the trial attorney.

Sam has done a total of 13 appeals thus far; he has 2 published opinions, and 5 of his appeals are pending.

On April 2, 2020, Sam prevailed in the published Appellate Division opinion Amzler v. Amzler, 463 N.J. Super. 187 (App. Div. 2020), where he successfully overturned an erroneous family court ruling and clarified a provision of the alimony statute.  This case is often discussed at family law seminars and to-date has been cited in 30 subsequent Appellate Division opinions and 2 treatises.  

On June 9, 2020, Berse Law prevailed in the published Family Part opinion C.N. v. S.R., 463 N.J. Super. 213 (Ch. Div. 2020), where the court held that, in the absence of a writing, partition of a residence remains an equitable remedy among unmarried, cohabitating intimates engaged in a joint venture.  This case is often discussed at family law seminars and is cited in New Jersey Family Law, Second Edition published June 18, 2021, as well as 1 unpublished Appellate Division opinion and 2 law review articles.

On October 12, 2021, Sam prevailed as respondent in the unpublished Appellate Division opinion K.A. v. C.E., where the panel affirmed a post-judgment matrimonial matter directing the appellant to make monthly payments through the probation division to satisfy his unfulfilled obligation to pay loans for the parties’ daughter’s college education.

On May 11, 2022, Sam prevailed as appellant in the unpublished Appellate Division opinion Glen Smiley v. Laurie Sheedy, where the panel reversed the family part and found that defendant had made a prima facie showing of cohabitation thereby remanding for discovery and a plenary hearing.  This was the first appellate opinion since Temple v. Temple to reverse and remand with a finding that a prima facie showing had been made.