Jeffrey Benz, FCIArb, FCollArb
Jeffrey Benz is a barrister at 4 New Square, a dual-qualified US attorney admitted in California, Colorado, Hawaii and New York, and an arbitrator and mediator with JAMS. He has sat as arbitrator or mediator in more than 1,500 disputes worldwide, focused on sport, entertainment, media and technology.
A member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport since 2000, he has served on ad hoc panels at the Olympic Games, Asian Games, Asian Winter Games, and two FIFA World Cups. His sports caseload spans anti-doping, eligibility and selection, match manipulation, transfers and governance, football, and the commercial disputes arising from sponsorship, broadcasting, hosting and event agreements. He has also sat on the tribunals and panels of a number of international and national governing bodies.
He was formerly General Counsel of the United States Olympic Committee, where he was among those involved in the creation of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, and later Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour. He is currently Special Advisor to Sela, the leading PIF-owned global live events and sports company, and brings to his adjudicative and advisory work first-hand experience of how federations, leagues, promoters, broadcasters, licensees, sponsors and rights holders operate.
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and of the College of Commercial Arbitrators, a CEDR accredited and IMI certified mediator, and has three times been named Best Lawyers' "Lawyer of the Year" for Arbitration and Best Lawyer for nearly a decade. He teaches sports dispute resolution and arbitration at Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law's Straus Institute.