Jeffrey G. Benz
FCIArb FCollArb CEDR IMI
Barrister (England & Wales) · Attorney-at-Law (United States)
Jeffrey Benz is a barrister of England and Wales and a dual-qualified United States attorney-at-law of more than thirty years' standing, and ranks among the most experienced sports and commercial neutrals in international practice. Called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2018 and a door tenant at 4 New Square, Lincoln's Inn, he was first admitted as a US attorney in California in 1994 and is also qualified in New York, Colorado, and Hawaii. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) and a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators.
As arbitrator and mediator he has sat in well over one thousand matters across common-law and civil-law systems, in both institutional and ad hoc proceedings, resolving disputes that routinely span multiple jurisdictions, governing laws and languages. His commercial practice covers cross-border contractual, shareholder, agency, sponsorship, broadcast and licensing disputes, and he sits with equal facility as sole arbitrator, tribunal chair, co-arbitrator and mediator. He has served on the Court of Arbitration for Sport since 2000, sitting on-site at seven Olympic Games and two FIFA World Cups, and is the author of reasoned awards including CAS 2015/A/4208 (Horse Sport Ireland and Cian O'Connor v. FEI). He also holds appointments with JAMS, the International Centre for Dispute Resolution and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution.
His subject-matter expertise sits at the intersection of sport, entertainment, media and technology. In the sports field he is recognised for his work in boxing and combat sports, anti-doping, eligibility and selection, football, and field-of-play doctrine; in entertainment and media for rights, talent, production and distribution disputes; and in technology for the commercial, data, intellectual-property and platform questions increasingly common to all three. This adjudicative work is informed by a parallel career in sports governance and integrity: among other roles he helped found the United States Anti-Doping Agency, led the restructuring of the United States Olympic Committee's board, and contributed to the development of US athlete-safeguarding standards. The result is an unusually deep understanding of the institutions, regulations and commercial realities that frame the disputes he is asked to resolve.
He pairs that practical experience with a sustained record in legal education, having taught international commercial arbitration, sports dispute resolution and arbitration law as an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University's Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution and at ISDE in Madrid and Barcelona, and lectured at universities across the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe. He writes and speaks regularly on arbitration and sports-law topics for practitioner audiences.
Fluent in the procedural expectations of both the US and English systems, Jeff is particularly well suited to parties and counsel in transatlantic and multi-jurisdictional matters who want a neutral genuinely conversant in both traditions. He is experienced in expedited and document-only procedures as well as full evidentiary hearings, and values clear, well-reasoned awards and pragmatic, proportionate case management. He accepts appointments as arbitrator, mediator, chair or sole member in commercial, sports, entertainment, media and technology disputes worldwide.
