Thomas S. Neuberger

thomas

An attorney for five decades, Tom has long been characterized by Delaware political analysts as “the patron lawyer of long-shot causes.”  He has extensive experience representing clients in civil trials and appeals, in matters ranging from all facets of constitutional, civil rights and employment law to various types of personal injury, including negligence, assault and battery as well as childhood sexual abuse.

Professional Honors:

The dean of the civil rights bar in Delaware, Delaware Today magazine describes Tom as a “pioneer in the field for more than four decades.”  In December 2023, the Wilmington NAACP honored him with the “Leonard L. Williams Criminal Justice Reform Award” for “your dedication and commitment to the communities you serve throughout Delaware” at their 60th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet.  The award is inscribed:

Stepping up for the little guy, the weak and helpless and overwhelmingly acknowledged positively by fellow lawyers for over forty years.

“In the words of the Editors of Delaware Lawyer magazine almost 40 years ago, “Tom Neuberger … has done splendid work for civil liberties.”  Since then, he has been repeatedly honored by his peers and selected by Super Lawyers magazine as a Delaware Super Lawyer from 2007-2023.  He also has been regularly and similarly honored by Delaware Today in its Top Lawyers issues going back at least to 1996, including in 2023 in the area of “Civil Rights,” and in the areas of “Constitutional Law” and “Civil Litigation” in recent years past.  In 2006, Delaware Today also profiled Tom as “Standing Up for the Little Man” and the leading civil rights attorney in Delaware. In 2007, Super Lawyers similarly profiled and featured him as “The Good Samaritan.” In 2008, Tom was again profiled by Delaware Today, this time in a piece focused on his representation of childhood sexual abuse survivors entitled “On Sin, Salvation and Justice: Why would a former Catholic take on the church?”

In January of 2005, Tom was appointed by then Chief Judge Anthony J. Scirica of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to the Lawyers Advisory Committee of the Judicial Council of the Third Judicial Circuit for a three year term.

Tom also was honored by the Governor of Delaware in 1986 and served as the Republican Party candidate for U.S. Congress for Delaware.

Background:

Tom was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, where he and his wife Judy still reside.

An avid basketball player and 1965 graduate of Salesianum high school in Wilmington, Tom received a B.A. in Political Science and graduated magna cum laude from St. Joseph’s University in 1969. He later received a Master’s Degree in Political Science with honors from the University of Delaware in 1973 and also was awarded a graduate school teaching assistantship and a National Science Foundation traineeship. In 1974, Tom received his J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law Center where he was an editor of the Georgetown Law Journal and an associate editor of the American Criminal Law Review.

From 1972 through 1974, Tom served as a law clerk to the Honorable John H. Pratt, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

After practicing for years as a partner in a medium sized Wilmington law firm, Tom founded Thomas S. Neuberger, P.A. in May of 1981. Not long after Steve joined the practice in 2003, The Neuberger Firm, P.A. was born.

Memberships:

Tom is admitted to the bars of the Delaware Supreme Court (1974), the United States Supreme Court (1978), the United States Courts of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1979), the Fourth Circuit (1993), the Fifth Circuit (1978), the Sixth Circuit (1992), the Seventh Circuit (1985), Ninth Circuit (1980), and the D.C. Circuit (1992), as well as the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware (1974).

Tom is a board member for The Rutherford Institute, an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights located in Charlottesville, Virginia. From 1982 through 1987 he served as general counsel for The Rutherford Institute.  Tom also is a member of the Bar Association of the Third Federal Circuit. He is a past member of the Christian Legal Society where he served as an executive committee member and national vice-president.

Presentations, Lectures and Publications:

As a result of his expertise in the First and Fourteenth Amendments, Tom was twice honored and asked to testify before committees of the U.S. Congress.

He has lectured other lawyers and students on areas of federal court practice and procedure, litigation tactics, the First and Fourteenth Amendments and recent case developments.

He also is often asked to speak to good government and other citizens groups about their rights under the U.S. Constitution, the civil rights laws and their rights and privileges as citizens under our democratic form of government.

A prolific writer, Tom is the author of the book, When Priests Become Predators: Profiles of Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors (2012), which uses sworn testimony given in jury trials and documents taken from the public court docket to tell the stories of a number of brave childhood sexual abuse survivors in Delaware who for many years battled the Diocese of Wilmington, the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales and the Norbertines in an attempt to protect children today by exposing the institutional cover ups of the past and present.

In past years, he also was a frequent visiting columnist for the Wilmington News Journal as an author, human rights advocate and civil liberties attorney, addressing topics including childhood sexual abuse, surveillance drone use on civilians, police use of military equipment, fusion center spying, the police state, model police drone regulations, government data collection, the threat of terrorism in high schools, and fixing broken policing nationwide.

Tom also has authored or co-authored legal articles which have appeared in the Fordham Law Review, the St. Louis University Public Law Review, the Delaware Lawyer, the Labor Law Journal and the Equal Employment Practice Guide. He has authored or co-authored the following publications: