A former New York City Council Member, Ben represented the Upper East Side, Midtown East, Roosevelt Island, and East Harlem from 2014 through 2021, after which he served in the White House in the Executive Office of the President. In the City Council, he chaired committees on Contracts, Government Operations, and the Land Use Subcommittee on Planning, Dispositions, and Concessions, where he oversaw government operations, scrutinized government contracts, public-private development deals, affordable housing subsidies, zoning actions, and the disposition of public land.

Ben has built his public career around taking on powerful interests when development, government action, or institutional failure threatens neighborhoods, tenants, small property owners, public resources, or vulnerable New Yorkers. He helped lead community fights against overdevelopment, supertall towers, mechanical void abuses, after-hours construction noise, and efforts to weaken landmark protections. He also helped create and preserve thousands of affordable homes, authored laws to bring tens of thousands of subsidized affordable apartments back to Housing Connect, opened permanent and supportive housing for homeless New Yorkers, and helped win community support for shelters.

For his work he was recognized as one of the best Council Members, most powerful people in Manhattan and in the non-profit sector, and by the Commercial Observer as a “Power Politician: The Officials Who Call the Shots on Real Estate.” Ben is especially proud to have won a “Grassroots Preservation Award” from the Historic Districts Council.

Before public service, Ben litigated hundreds of matters in New York Civil and Supreme Courts and worked on federal ERISA, labor, employment, and insurance matters. His background allows him to help clients navigate not only the courtroom, but also the agencies, elected officials, community boards, land-use procedures, press dynamics, and political realities that often determine whether a public fight is won.

Benjamin is admitted to the Courts of the States of New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C.; the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York; the District of New Jersey; the District of D.C., and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Before becoming an attorney, Ben was a software developer and still writes code on occasion. He is a proud girl dad, enjoys music, theater, and the arts, and training for triathlons.