John T. Bender

John Bender is a partner in the firm's Commercial Disputes and White Collar Defense and Investigations practice groups, where he focuses his practice on winning high stakes legal cases for his clients and providing strategic advice to boards and executives.

John routinely represents companies, executives and investors in matters worth tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. 

John has deep experience spanning a broad range of areas including securities, breach of contract, partnership and shareholder disputes, venture capital and private equity, corporate governance, claims of fraud embezzlement, unfair or deceptive competition, franchising, real estate development, manufacturing and supply chains, and disputes over technology and intellectual property.

John also represents companies and their leadership in class actions as well as enforcement proceedings brought by the SEC, WA DFI, or state attorneys general, and in matters involving internal investigations, reputational harm, and crisis management. John’s cases are regularly featured in major news publications such as TIME Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and The Seattle Times.

With deep experience prosecuting and defending litigation in venture capital, private equity, M&A, and other transactional contexts, John has been entrusted with client assignments at the highest level of consequence. Of particular note, John served as court-appointed Special Counsel and lead trial lawyer in the two largest cases of investment fraud of record in Pacific Northwest history, where creditors asserted nearly US$1 billion in combined losses, in which he prevailed at separate trials in establishing that each enterprise operated historic nine-figure Ponzi schemes. 

John was awarded the Washington Defense Trial Lawyers Association’s Outstanding Plaintiff’s Trial Lawyer of the Year Award (2025). Benchmark Litigation selected him to its "40 & Under List...the guide to the best and brightest litigators under 40 in the US" in back-to-back years (2024-25). John has been named to the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch^® in America every year since 2021 and to the Washington Rising Stars list every year since 2017. 

John has a substantial record of thought leadership and pro bono service in the broader community. John sits on the nonprofit board of Washington Technology Industry Association. He is an advisory board member of Northwest Quantum Nexus. He is a member of WTIA’s Cascadia Blockchain Council and served on the Washington blockchain workgroup sponsored by the Washington State Department of Commerce. He is a past volunteer and speaker for the City of Seattle's New Citizen Campaign. He is a past board member and chair of the WSBA’s Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Board. He sits on King County’s judicial conferencing and judicial officers survey committees.

John received a B.A. from Seattle University, a J.D. from University of Washington, and an LL.M. from the University of California, Berkeley.