Washington, DC (Aug. 15, 2022) – Shahzad “Shazzie” Naseem was sworn in as Parliamentarian of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) at the Association's annual meeting held on August 13.

Shazzie Naseem is a partner at Berkowitz Oliver LLP in Kansas City, Missouri, where he focuses on federal criminal defense, including white collar criminal defense and internal investigations. Before entering private practice, he served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where he served as defense counsel for officers and enlisted personnel in both administrative separation board proceedings and court-martial trials. He also served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of California United States Attorney’s Office as part of his work as an Assistant Staff Judge Advocate for Naval Base Ventura County.  

Naseem serves on several Criminal Justice Act panels and is the elected Defender Services Advisory Group attorney representative for the 8th Circuit. Additionally, he previously served as one of three Coordinating Discovery Attorneys (CDA) for the federal Defender Services Office for complex multidefendant cases prosecuted in U.S. district courts across the country. This position was established to help CJA attorneys cope with voluminous electronic discovery and he has lectured on this topic at numerous NACDL conferences. 

Naseem is currently Co-Chair of NACDL’s Task Force on Rule 16.1 Implementation, serves on the Membership and Technology Advisory Committees, and is a member of the Fourth Amendment Center Advisory Board, the Task Force on Defenses, and the Strategic Litigation Capacity Building Committee. He received his B.A. from Truman State University and his J.D. from Notre Dame Law School, where he was an American College of Trial Lawyers Moot Court National Champion and received the Arthur A. May Award for Commitment to Professional Ethical Standards and Excellence in Trial Advocacy.

Contacts

Jessie Diamond, NACDL Public Affairs and Communications Associate, (202) 465-7647 or jdiamond@nacdl.org

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's many thousands of direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal legal system.