James Benjamin

Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP

James J. Benjamin Jr. 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. He has led a number of independent investigations on behalf of audit committees of public companies, and regularly advises private investment funds on trading compliance matters. Mr. Benjamin has conducted numerous jury trials and has briefed and argued many cases before federal and state appellate courts.

In the past several years, Mr. Benjamin has handled the following representative government enforcement matters—

  • Defended a hedge-fund portfolio manager in a criminal securities fraud case alleging insider trading, market manipulation and racketeering
  • Defended senior executives of a Fortune 50 company in accounting investigations conducted by the DOJ, SEC and an audit committee, as well as in parallel shareholder litigation
  • Led the independent investigation of stock-options backdating for a well-known public company, which led to a restatement and criminal prosecutions of several former executives
  • Led the independent investigation of potential securities and accounting violations by a publicly traded investment company
  • Represented a publicly traded reinsurance company in audit committee and SEC investigations of potential improper accounting
  • Defended numerous individuals and hedge funds in approximately 10 separate insider trading investigations conducted by various regulators
  • Represented a major accounting firm in government investigations and private litigation, following problems at audit clients
  • Defended a senior partner of a private equity firm in a SEC investigation regarding disclosures relating to a portfolio company
  • Represented the general counsel of a well-known public company in audit committee, SEC, and DOJ investigations of alleged vendor fraud and accounting problems
  • Defended the CFO of a public company in audit committee and SEC investigations of improper accounting and stock-options backdating
  • Defended senior traders at major Wall Street firms in separate investigations by the NASD and the NYSE alleging, respectively, excessive markups, improper trading alongside customer orders, and market manipulation
  • Represented current and former executives of a global financial institution in an investigation of alleged violations of U.S. sanctions regulations applicable to banks.

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. During his tenure there, he served as deputy chief appellate attorney and as a member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force. 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.