Mr. Benson is a former Federal Prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice. His practice focuses primarily on wildfire litigation, mass torts, and white collar criminal defense.
Mr. Benson draws on his extensive experience representing victims and devotes a substantial part of his practice advocating for people victimized by wildfires and ensuring their rights are protected as they face massive corporate wrongdoers. He has assisted victims of various wildfires, including the North Bay Fires, the Camp Fire, the Bobcat Fire, the Zogg Fire, and the Dixie Fire.
Mr. Benson also handles nearly every type of federal criminal case and investigation, including government procurement fraud, corruption, environmental crimes, immigration worksite enforcement actions, computer fraud, mail and wire fraud, theft of trade secrets, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, securities fraud, health care fraud, import and export violations, money laundering, stock market manipulation, Ponzi schemes and various other charges. Along with defending companies and individuals in white collar criminal investigations, Mr. Benson represents clients facing government regulatory investigations and enforcement actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Division, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and other regulatory and law enforcement agencies.
Prior to founding Parkinson, Benson, Potter, Mr. Benson was a shareholder at a large firm in Salt Lake City where, along with his white collar practice, he represented corporations and individuals in a wide range of civil matters, including breach of contract claims, partnership disputes, securities fraud and federal qui tam actions under the False Claims Act. Mr Benson has handled and appeared in numerous federal cases in a wide variety of federal districts across the country including Utah, New York, Texas, California, Nevada, Idaho, Washington, DC and Florida. Over the course of his career, Mr. Benson has been recognized by his peers in the legal industry multiple times as a Super Lawyer, and has served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law, and at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School.
When he’s not practicing law, Mr. Benson enjoys spending time with his wife and four kids, riding the mountain bike trails near his law office and watching sports documentaries on ESPN.
Mr. Benson received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah and graduated with his J.D. from California Western School of Law.