Ben has vast experience coordinating strategic litigation to advance human rights and address challenges to the rule of law.  He previously managed a diverse portfolio of sixty cases before international, regional and domestic tribunals, prepared legal filings, and evaluated the strategic aspects of potential cases.  He conducted this work while serving as legal officer, acting director of programs, and project consultant for the Justice Initiative of the Open Society Foundations.  For three years, Ben also ran the Justice Initiative’s summer school on strategic human rights litigation, which is held at the Central European University in Hungary.  Most recently, Ben served as a consultant to the Justice Initiative, providing expertise on corporate tax avoidance, tax havens, inequality and international economic governance.

Before earning his reputation as an effective human rights lawyer and strategist, Ben served for five years as Appeals Counsel for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC).  In that role, Ben developed deep knowledge of international criminal law and the interaction of international and domestic accountability mechanisms. This built on his previous work in the Australian Attorney-General’s Department, where he facilitated Australia’s ratification and implementation of the ICC Statute, drafting the necessary domestic legislation, briefing government ministers, and advising the government on issues arising out of Australia’s membership to the Court. While with the Attorney-General’s Department, Ben also developed regional strategies to combat people smuggling, trafficking in persons, and related transnational crime, and also facilitated workshops for justice and immigration officials from regional governments.

Ben has written extensively on international criminal law, most recently co-authoring The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court:  commentary and digest of jurisprudence; and on the effective use of human rights claims, authoring a toolkit for taking cases to the United Nations’ Human Rights Committee and Committee against Torture, and a guide for effective drafting of human rights complaints.  

Ben holds a Master of Law from the University of Cambridge, a Bachelor of Laws (Honors) and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia, and a Post-Graduate Certificate in European Union Law from Kings College London.  He is admitted to legal practice in New York and in Australia.

With Strategy for Humanity, Ben’s recent clients have included: Center for Climate Crime and Analysis, The American University Washington College of Law’s Syrian Initiative to Combat Sexual Violence, American Society for International Law, Freedom House, and Greenpeace International.