He has experience researching and developing policies aimed at achieving carbon emissions-free energy grids and has worked on significant projects related to renewable energy markets and coal-impacted communities.

Before joining B&D, Ben gained wide-ranging litigation expertise as a Judicial Law Clerk for the Honorable Evan J. Wallach at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, with a majority of Judge Wallach’s service as a visiting judge at the Ninth Circuit and the District of Delaware. Prior to his clerkship, Ben also held a U.S. Department of Energy fellowship, hosted by the Arizona Corporation Commission, where he researched the implications of new wholesale electricity markets in the western U.S. and the impacts of the closures of coal plants on Arizona communities. In law school, Ben interned with EPA Region 7.

Prior to becoming a lawyer, Ben received his doctorate in geography at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, where his research focused on the development of local food trading networks. After his time at Oxford, he worked for ten years in higher education sustainability on the academic and administrative sides. He first served as the Director of Sustainability at Kansas State University and later as a Director of the Office of Sustainability at the University of Arizona. In these roles, he led university-wide strategic planning, developed sustainability programs for students and other departments, and coordinated sustainability rankings and reporting. During both of these roles, he also served part-time as a geography professor, where he taught courses including Sustainability Science, The Green Economy, and Evolution of a Sustainable World.