Benjamin Chew

Practice Areas

Ben Chew is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (“ACTL”), the most prestigious, invitation-only society of senior trial counsel in the United States. A multifaceted litigator, Ben represents clients in complex commercial litigation and arbitrations in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and throughout the United States and internationally. He handles diverse commercial disputes, including corporate governance, breach of fiduciary duty, defamation, intellectual property, government contracts, breach of contract, class actions, partnership disputes, derivative shareholder and other corporate governance actions, international disputes, Lanham Act, health care, energy, environmental, UCC, products liability, real estate, bankruptcy, employment (including noncompete), insurance law, white collar defense, fraud, and RICO litigation. In what has been called the “trial of the century,” Ben served as lead trial counsel with Camille Vasquez in Johnny Depp’s victory in his defamation case in Fairfax County, Virginia (the “Fairfax Case”). Along with Camille, Ben serves as co-chair of the Firm’s Brand & Reputation Management group. Prior to the Fairfax Case, Ben successfully prosecuted two breach of fiduciary cases for Johnny Depp in Los Angeles. He successfully represented Cher in several cases, including two relating to the Academy Award nominated “Edith & Eddie.”

Fluent in Spanish, Ben is part of the team representing a Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico in the pending bankruptcy proceedings, and has litigated for Dominican, Ecuadorian, Guatemalan, Nicaraguan, and Panamanian clients in the U.S. He has represented governments of Dubai (securing the dismissal of a multimillion dollar arbitration award by Bechtel) and Honduras in U.S. litigation. In 2013, after passing the Kosovo Bar, he defended the holder of the country’s telecommunications franchise there in criminal proceedings brought by EULEX, securing his acquittal and enabling his company to keep its franchise. Before the European Court of Human Rights, Ben represented a leading Georgian political and business lender in a petition to restore his wrongfully revoked citizenship, and favorably resolved a defamation claim for the former prime minister of the Czech Republic.

Ben remains committed to pro bono, successfully representing an African American honors graduate of the University of Virginia in his civil rights case against certain government officers. He served as counsel for one of the plaintiffs’ groups in the landmark Black Farmers class action litigation against the U.S. Department of Agriculture based on systemic discrimination in farm loan programs, which resulted in a $1.2 billion settlement. Ben represented a Native American plaintiffs’ group in the parallel Keepseagle class action, settled for just under $1 billion. He represented two Olympic gold medalists, Dr. Edwin Moses and Beckie Scott, in a matter involving an investigation conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Ben was named a “Top Trial Lawyer” and a “Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation and a “Sports/Gaming/Entertainment Law Trailblazer” by the National Law Journal. For each of the past seven years, Ben has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America for commercial litigation. He also serves as a Trial Advocacy Instructor at Harvard Law School.