In 1996 and 1997, while working as a government affairs adviser for Las Vegas Sands, during the construction of The Venetian Berkley advised her employer to make campaign contributions to two Clark County Commissioners and two Clark County judges to secure their approval for the new hotel. Berkley also suggested to her employer, the option of hiring an uncle of County Commissioner Erin Kenny and to grant a daiquiri concession to commission chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates. Berkley also advised making campaign contributions to the two judges because they "tend to help those who helped them."