Jeffrey Benz

Arbitrator/Barrister, 4 New Square

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Jeff is a Door Tenant at 4 New Square Chambers, London and accomplished arbitrator and mediator. As a former General Counsel of the United States Olympic Committee, and former athlete, Jeff's sports credentials are without compare. Jeff has acted as a neutral or counsel in a wide variety of sports, including, among others, ice hockey, gymnastics, speedskating, figure skating, football and soccer, rugby, track and field, team handball, equestrian, table tennis, triathlon, wrestling, tennis, taekwondo, volleyball, boxing, cycling, sailing, and complex disputes and transactions involving sponsorships, film financings and production, technology, licensing, and live events.

Born in the US, he earned his undergraduate and MBA degrees at the University of Michigan and his law degree at the University of Texas, and is admitted as a member of the bar of the states of California, Colorado, Hawaii, and New York, and a variety of United States federal courts. Jeff also attended a semester at the Queen Mary University of London and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and started his professional career as an intern in Lloyd’s Claims Office in London.

Jeff’s UK, and European, practice is devoted primarily to acting as mediator and arbitrator. Jeff has strong background in the law governing disputes and transactions in entertainment, sports, technology, and insurance, and he has been involved in general commercial practice his entire career. He is a CEDR-accredited mediator and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and he is a principal mediator and arbitrator with the Agency for Dispute Resolution in Los Angeles. His work as an intermediary or counsel has taken him around the world, throughout the United States, and to, among other places, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland, Moldova, Georgia, Thailand, Kenya, Mexico, and, of course, the United Kingdom.

He has extensive practical experience and training (as both counsel and neutral) in arbitration, mediation and other forms of non-court dispute resolution. He is an active, appointed, member of several panels of arbitrators and mediators in the United States, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Switzerland, the U.K and internationally, including the American Arbitration Association, Hong Kong International Arbitration Commission, Beijing Arbitration Commission, China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), London Court of International Arbitration, ICC-USCIB, Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and Rugby Football Union (RFU).

Jeff is an active member of the American Bar Association, the Swiss Arbitration Association, the Sports Lawyers Association (where he is a long-time member of the Board and serves as International Committee Chair), and the National Sports Law Institute.

Jeff is an adjunct professor at the law schools at Los Angeles-based Pepperdine University and Madrid-based ISDE, and he contributes regularly to the literature on dispute resolution and sports law. Since 2013, Jeff has been named as one of a handful of worldwide professionals in the Who’s Who of Entertainment and Sports Law, where he is one of the few neutrals so recognized in the field.