Ted Bennett serves as co-chair of Williams & Connolly’s Complex Commercial Litigation practice group. His practice focuses on trial work and civil litigation, principally in matters relating to commercial disputes, corporate governance, banking and financial services, antitrust and trade practices, patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property. In recent years, he has been lead trial counsel in civil and criminal jury trials and arbitrations, and has represented national banks, major accounting firms, Fortune 50 companies, multinational chemical and technology companies, and individuals in federal and state courts across the country, in arbitrations, and in CFPB, SEC, and other government investigations.
Though all cases vary and none are predictive, Ted’s recent trial experience includes a three-week civil RICO trial that resulted in a jury verdict in favor of his clients, a leading financial services company and a law firm; a two-week patent and patent licensing trial that resulted in a $309 million jury verdict in favor of his client, the family of an inventor; representing the leading internet search provider in a 10-week antitrust trial, which is in post-trial briefing and is awaiting a ruling; representation of an international medical device manufacturing company in a two-week bench trial in the Commercial Division of the New York state courts, resulting in a resounding victory for the client; the representation of a national bank in an arbitration relating to its provision of identity theft services; the representation of a major electronics manufacturer in a multi-week international arbitration regarding patent licensing; the successful defense of a brokerage house and two individual brokers in a two-week FINRA arbitration; and the successful defense of a national accounting firm in a three-week professional negligence jury trial.
When his clients’ opponents in the accounting malpractice and patent licensing cases appealed, Ted successfully defended the juries’ verdicts, arguing each case in the state appellate courts. The defendants in the patent licensing case took their appeal to the United States Supreme Court, which denied certiorari and sustained the client’s victory.
Ted was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1986. Before attending law school, Ted was an officer in the U.S. Navy for seven years, flying missions in the first Gulf War and in support of NATO air enforcement in Bosnia. He served as a Naval Flight Officer in Carrier Air Wing Five, based in Atsugi, Japan and aboard USS Midway, and at the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in Casteau, Belgium. Ted received his J.D. with high honors from Duke University School of Law, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and Editor-in-Chief, Law and Contemporary Problems.
Updated Sep 2024
