Matt Benjamin is a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  He is a member of Gibson Dunn’s General Commercial Litigation, White Collar Defense and Investigations, Crisis Management, and  Privacy, Cybersecurity and Data Innovation Practice Groups, among others.  Mr. Benjamin has also served on the firm’s Hiring, Diversity, and Community Affairs Committees.

Mr. Benjamin’s practice focuses on complex litigation, white collar criminal defense and internal investigations, and crisis management.  Mr. Benjamin has deep experience counseling prominent individuals and companies in sensitive and often confidential privacy and defamation matters, reputational recovery matters, private investigations, and founders’ disputes.

Representative public matters include:

• Tinder: Represented the founders and early employees of the popular dating app Tinder in multibillion-dollar litigation against InterActiveCorp (IAC) and Match Group, Tinder’s parent companies, in New York State Supreme Court, Commercial Division. After a nearly four-week jury trial and days before the case was scheduled to go to verdict, the defendants agreed to pay $441 million to settle.  Gibson Dunn presented more than a dozen witnesses, including hostile cross-examinations of IAC Chairman Barry Diller and former Match CEO Greg Blatt, in the plaintiffs’ case-in-chief.

• Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg: Represented Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg in a high-profile breach of contract action brought by Paul Ceglia alleging a significant ownership interest in Facebook. Obtained expedited discovery developing substantial evidence of forgery, manipulation of digital evidence, and spoliation.  Successfully moved for dismissal of the action as a fraud on the court and prevailed on appeal in the Second Circuit.  Relatedly, represented Facebook and Mr. Zuckerberg as victims in the federal criminal prosecution of Plaintiff who was indicted on two felony counts for bringing the lawsuit.

• Office of the Governor of the State of New Jersey: Represented the Office of the Governor of the State of New Jersey in a high-profile internal investigation related to allegations concerning the George Washington Bridge toll lane realignment in September 2013, including preparation of an exhaustive 340-page report of findings and recommendations.

• DraftKings: Represented DraftKings in wide-ranging internal investigation, defense of numerous criminal and regulatory investigations, and civil actions related to compliance with federal and state gaming laws, including enforcement action brought by New York Attorney General seeking to enjoin DraftKings from ongoing operations.

• Yik Yak: Represented social media app Yik Yak and its two co-founders, Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington, in a lawsuit brought by a former classmate alleging a significant ownership interest in Yik Yak.

• Netlist: Represented memory technologies provider Netlist, Inc. in a fraud and breach of contract action in New York State Supreme Court, Commercial Division filed by former investment adviser, securing dismissal at the pleading stage in full.

• Lavastone Capital: Represented life settlement investor Lavastone Capital, an AIG affiliate, in a civil RICO, fraud, and breach of contract action in the Southern District of New York, culminating in confidential post-trial settlement.

• Empire Merchants: Represented Empire Merchants LLC, the largest liquor distributor in New York, in its RICO lawsuit against a Maryland liquor distributor and numerous co-conspirators for their alleged involvement in a bootlegging scheme to smuggle tens of millions of dollars of liquor from Maryland to New York.

Mr. Benjamin maintains a robust pro bono practice.  In 2015, the Federal Bar Council selected Mr. Benjamin to receive the Thurgood Marshall Award for Exceptional Pro Bono Service, recognizing his “extraordinary contribution to public service and persistent dedication to enhancing access to justice for those most in need.”  In particular, Mr. Benjamin was honored for his efforts in developing Gibson Dunn’s groundbreaking pro bono program in support of the Alternatives to Incarceration programs of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.  Through this program, Gibson Dunn attorneys have provided pro bono civil legal services, including representation in housing, public assistance benefits, immigration, professional licensing, transactional, and family law matters, to dozens of defendant participants in the ATI programs.   Mr. Benjamin has also represented individual clients in federal courts and agencies in immigration, veterans, criminal, and family court matters.  He currently represents the surviving family of a high-profile murder victim in law enforcement and related matters.

Mr. Benjamin has a particular expertise in federal sentencing law and policy.  In 2012, Mr. Benjamin was appointed a non-voting member of the United States Sentencing Commission’s Practitioners Advisory Group, through which the national defense bar provides the Commission with input on a variety of sentencing-related issues, including proposed amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and legislative initiatives.  In 2014, Mr. Benjamin was appointed a member of the Federal Bar Council’s Committee on Sentencing and Alternatives to Incarceration.  He has written numerous articles about federal sentencing policy, including in the Federal Sentencing Reporter, and is an annual contributor to the ABA’s two-volume treatise, “Practice Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines,” a comprehensive sentencing resource.

Mr. Benjamin graduated in 2006 from New York University School of Law, where he served as an Executive Articles Editor for the Annual Survey of American Law and a research assistant to Professor Amy Adler.  He graduated cum laude from Yale College with a Bachelor of Arts in the History of Art in 2003.

Mr. Benjamin serves on the Board of Directors of Classic Stage Company (CSC), a leading Off-Broadway theater.

From 2008 to 2009, Mr. Benjamin served as a law clerk to the Honorable George Z. Singal in the United States District Court for the District of Maine.

The Best Lawyers in America® 2023 recognizes Mr. Benjamin as a leading Criminal Defense: White-Collar attorney.  In addition, he has been consistently named in the Super Lawyers: New York Metro “Rising Stars” list in the area of litigation since 2013.

Mr. Benjamin is admitted to practice in the State of New York, and before the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.