Biography:

James J. Benjamin Jr., a partner in the New York office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, represents clients in a wide variety of government and regulatory investigations and litigation. Mr. Benjamin has extensive experience with matters arising under the federal securities laws—including allegations of insider trading, improper accounting and disclosure, market manipulation, and foreign corrupt practices—and also has broad experience with other alleged violations. With his law partner, Mr. Benjamin is the co-author of In Pursuit of Justice: Prosecuting Terrorism Cases in the Federal Courts, a comprehensive examination of federal-court terrorism prosecutions prepared on behalf of Human Rights First.

Before joining Akin Gump in early 2001, Mr. Benjamin served for more than five years as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. As an assistant U.S. attorney, he received an award for superior performance from Attorney General Janet Reno in 2000. Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Benjamin served as a law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justices Lewis F. Powell Jr. and John Paul Stevens. Before that, he worked for several years as an associate at a major Washington-based law firm and served as a law clerk for the Honorable J. Frederick Motz, a federal district judge in the District of Maryland.

Mr. Benjamin received his A.B. magna cum laude in 1987 from Dartmouth College, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded the Colby Government Prize. He earned his J.D. in 1990 from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was the research and projects editor of the Virginia Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. He is a member of the New York, Maryland and District of Columbia bars and is admitted to practice before numerous federal courts.

Mr. Benjamin is a member of the New York Council of Defense Lawyers, the New York City Bar Association’s Task Force on National Security and the Rule of Law, and the New York American Inn of Court. He also has spoken extensively on developments in government enforcement.