Justin E. Klein

Overview

Justin E. Klein is a trusted advisor, outside general counsel, trustee, and lead counsel to family offices, ultra-high-net-worth individuals, principals, investors, and select privately held and public companies.

He advises clients on their most sensitive legal and business matters, including disputes, transactions, governance issues, fiduciary matters, and risk allocation. His role is often engaged where legal, financial, and personal considerations intersect, and where discretion, judgment, and trust are paramount.

In addition to his advisory and counsel roles, Justin is frequently appointed to serve in fiduciary and trustee capacities for ultra-high-net-worth families, supporting oversight of private enterprises, investment structures, and multi-generational planning and governance matters.

His practice is intentionally selective and focused on complex, high-value matters involving closely held businesses, private investments, and significant commercial relationships. He advises on partnership and shareholder disputes, fiduciary and governance matters, executive and founder-level issues, and sophisticated commercial arrangements.

He serves as counsel to family offices, investors, and operating companies across a number of sectors, including sports, media, entertainment, life sciences, technology, consumer businesses, hospitality, and emerging private companies. He also serves as outside general counsel to select clients seeking ongoing strategic and legal counsel.

Justin has represented clients in confidential negotiations, arbitration proceedings, and litigation involving complex commercial disputes and sensitive business matters.

He is known for a discreet, pragmatic, and judgment-driven approach, with a focus on resolving issues efficiently, preserving value, and protecting long-term interests. Clients engage him for his ability to navigate complexity quietly, think strategically under pressure, and operate effectively in high-stakes and sensitive environments.

Justin has negotiated significant domestic and international transactions, including:

• a private equity consortium bidding on the multi-billion-dollar acquisition of an American mixed martial arts promotion company, one of the largest transactions in history for a sports organization;
• a publicly-traded biotech company in a licensing, commercialization and supply deal covering a pipeline of biosimilar drugs in development in the United States and Europe;
• a production company in connection with a multi-party, global documentary production deal; and
• a multinational pharmaceutical company in connection with a major U.S. land acquisition and development project.

Justin has successfully represented companies in litigation throughout the United States in state and federal courts, including:

• defending a publicly traded company against claims seeking more than $50 million in damages arising from an early-stage investment;
• securing a groundbreaking digital fair use victory in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on behalf of a client defending against a claim for copyright infringement challenging its plagiarism detection service;
• obtaining a dismissal on behalf of a professional football team in a multi-million-dollar insurance dispute;
• successfully litigating and settling a breach of sponsorship agreement dispute on behalf of a professional basketball team;
• successfully representing a professional sports team in defending defamation claims; and
• pursuing and defending claims on behalf of clients under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Prior to joining Benesch, Justin was a partner at another AMLAW New York City law firm. He also clerked for the Honorable Judge Mary Ellen Coster Williams of the United States Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C. Justin is a member of the Leadership Council of the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute. Justin is also the legal advisor for the National Veterans Leadership Foundation.

*Some of the matters above were completed prior to joining Benesch.