James Benson is Senior Counsel at Andrew & Hopkins, where his practice integrates regulatory compliance and institutional governance, education policy and reform, employment and labor issues specific to higher education, and the broader legal questions facing American colleges and universities. James is a rare practitioner who brings academic depth and Washington fluency to the same engagement.
His clients include colleges, universities, independent schools, accreditors, and the boards and senior administrators who lead them. James advises on accreditation, federal student aid compliance, Title IX and Clery Act compliance, faculty and employment matters, and the institutional risk questions that arise when a campus matter becomes a federal or state inquiry. He counsels boards through crisis-response engagements involving allegations of misconduct, financial irregularity, or governance failure, and he conducts independent investigations on behalf of trustees.
A member of the firm's Government Affairs team, James engages on policy reform initiatives before the U.S. Department of Education, congressional committees, and state regulators. He is known for the combination of substantive expertise and pragmatic political judgment that higher-education clients require when a regulatory question is also a reputational one. His office contact line is +1-771-222-7572. James is admitted in the District of Columbia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.