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, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New York, California and throughout the United States and internationally. He handles diverse commercial disputes, including defamation, corporate governance, breach of fiduciary duty, intellectual property, government contracts, breach of contract, class actions, derivative shareholder and other corporate governance actions, international disputes, Lanham Act, 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 an American actor’s victory in his defamation case in Fairfax County, Virginia (the “Fairfax Case”). Prior to the Fairfax Case, Ben successfully prosecuted two breach of fiduciary cases for this actor in Los Angeles. He also successfully represented an American singer and actress in several cases, including two relating to an Academy Award nominated documentary film, a professional chef and an American actor.

Fluent in Spanish, Ben was 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, and currently represents the Republic of Kazakhstan. 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. Last year Ben helped secure the dismissal of a defamation action in the Eastern District of Virginia filed against the current Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He currently represents the co-creator of an orthodontic device and technique in multiple arbitrations and court cases.

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 in a matter involving an investigation conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

In addition to being a Fellow of the ACTL, Ben is ranked in Chambers High Net Worth for Defamation/Reputation Management, and The Legal 500 named him a "Recommended Lawyer" for Media and Entertainment: Litigation. Benchmark Litigation named Ben a "Top Trial Lawyer," a "Litigation Star" and “Entertainment Litigator of the Year for 2023,” and the National Law Journal named him a "Sports/Gaming/Entertainment Law Trailblazer." Ben has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America for commercial litigation for each year since 2017. He appears regularly as a legal commentator on CNN, the Law Crime and CourtTV. He also serves as a Trial Advocacy Instructor at Harvard Law School.