Ben Field

Ben Field is an attorney at the Institute for Justice. He has litigated cases in all of IJ’s pillars, in federal and state courts across the country. Among Ben’s major focuses are First Amendment retaliation cases, which seek to vindicate the rights of Americans who face arbitrary or pretextual actions from executive officials seeking to silence their speech. He has also fought to defend the free speech rights of people to give advice as part of their occupation.

Ben also has a focus on property rights. He has litigated in several states to curtail abusive civil forfeiture practices. And he has litigated against the abuse of eminent domain for private benefit.

Ben has written in newspapers, given interviews, and delivered talks at law schools around the country about his cases and a variety of legal topics, including the First Amendment’s protection for occupational speech, the need to abolish judge-made immunity doctrines that shield government abuse such as qualified immunity, and why state courts should recognize private rights of action for citizens to vindicate their rights under state constitutions.

Before joining IJ, Ben worked for two major national law firms, where his practice focused on the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal courts of appeals. Ben clerked for Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge Kent A. Jordan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Ben received his law degree from Yale Law School in 2015, and an A.B. in economics from the University of Chicago in 2010.