Practice Focus
Class Actions/Mass Actions/MDLs, Environmental, International Arbitration, Lender Liability, Ponzi/Banking Schemes, Securities and AntitrustBenjamin Reichard, a partner in our Litigation Section, enjoys a diverse practice, including securities arbitration, construction disputes, environmental law, and general commercial litigation. He also heads the firm’s international arbitration practice and is a member of the International Bar Association.
Ben thrives on being told a case is unwinnable, a theory of liability is unprovable, or a defendant is untouchable. He excels on the firm’s most challenging cases by immersing himself in the facts of the case and then following every lead that might help his client’s cause, all with his determination and creativity on full display.
Ben’s international arbitration practice is centered in the area of investor-state arbitration. He currently serves as lead counsel representing contractors, developers, financial consortiums, and individual investors in confidential arbitrations against sovereign nations arising out of multi-hundred-million-dollar large-scale construction, infrastructure, and industrial development projects, as well as disputes relating to government malfeasance and failure to protect individual investors’ interests.
Ben was also among the group of lead counsel for investors defrauded in R. Allen Stanford’s $7 billion Ponzi scheme. In their lawsuit, investors alleged that five banks aided and abetted or knowingly participated in the scheme. Settlements totaling $1.6 billion were reached with five bank defendants on the eve of trial.
Currently, he represents the Official Stanford Investors Committee Ponzi in its claims against The Bank of New York Mellon arising from the Stanford Ponzi scheme and also represents other investment fraud victims in several different cases pending in federal court and in private arbitration against third-party aiders. Additionally, he has represented individual investors in state court for third-party liability claims arising out of Ponzi schemes.
In other arbitration matters, Ben has represented a range of clients—from individual investors to hedge funds to banks—in proceedings against prime brokers, auditors, clearing brokers, broker-dealers, and financial advisors. He also has extensive experience in complex ERISA and antitrust litigation.
Education
-
J.D., high honors, from Chicago-Kent College of Law, 2008
- Order of the Coif
- B.A. in Classics, magna cum laude, from Amherst College, 2001
Representative Matters
Ben has handled a number of interesting matters, including representing:
- Individuals and the Official Stanford Investor’s Committee against five banks, with particular concentration on claims against Trustmark National Bank and Independent Bank of Texas (formerly known as Bank of Houston), in a lawsuit alleging the banks’ aiding and abetting of the $7 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by R. Allen Stanford; settlements of $100 million were reached with both Trustmark and Bank of Houston in early 2023, with total recoveries from all five bank defendants (The Toronto-Dominion Bank, Société Générale Private Banking (Suisse) S.A., HSBC Bank plc, Trustmark, and Bank of Houston) amounting to more than $1.6 billion;
- The Board of Commissioners of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East in a highly-publicized coastal land loss case against dozens of oil and gas production and development corporations and in a related challenge to a recently-enacted Louisiana statute;
- Individual landowners in claims involving large scale environmental damage caused by oil and gas operations on their property; and
- An energy-transport startup company against Cargill, Inc. and Cargill’s local affiliate, asserting breach of contract and tortious interference with contract following collapse of a transportation facilities project valued at $1 billion.