John T. Bender

John Bender is a partner in the firm's Commercial Disputes and White Collar Defense and Investigations practice groups, where he devotes his practice to helping companies, boards, and executives win or resolve complex legal and business challenges in the courtroom and the boardroom. 

As John routinely handles matters involving exposure ranging in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars, his cases are regularly covered in major news publications such as TIME Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and The Seattle Times. John’s subject-matter expertise spans a broad range of areas including venture capital and technology, securities, partnership and shareholder disputes, corporate governance, claims of fraud embezzlement, unfair competition, franchising, real estate development, manufacturing and supply chains, and intellectual property including trade secrets. 

John also represents companies and their leadership in enforcement proceedings before the SEC, WA DFI, and state attorneys general, and in matters involving internal investigations, reputational harm, and crisis management. With deep experience prosecuting and defending litigation in venture capital, private equity, M&A, and other transactional contexts, John has been entrusted with cases at the highest level of consequence. 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 in establishing each entity operated historic nine-figure Ponzi schemes. 

John is a past recipient of 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). He has been recognized by Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch^® in America every year since 2021 and named to the Super Lawyers Rising Stars list 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 also 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.