Benjamin J. Horwich

His substantial experience, including nearly a decade of service in the federal government, offers clients valuable foresight and perspective in confronting the complex, novel and industry-defining legal issues of strategic importance to their business. He is ranked by Chambers USA as one of the leading appellate lawyers in the United States and recognized for his appellate work by The Best Lawyers in America.

Mr. Horwich has briefed and argued cases before all levels of the federal courts, including arguing 10 cases in the Supreme Court of the United States. His industry experience ranges from pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and food production and marketing, to banking, surface and air transportation, semiconductors, and energy. He has special expertise in competition law, class actions, and federal preemption under numerous regulatory schemes.

Mr. Horwich joined Munger Tolles in 2014 after serving more than five years as Assistant to the Solicitor General in the U.S. Department of Justice. As an attorney for the United States, Mr. Horwich filed nearly 200 briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, and he advised the Solicitor General on more than 200 other matters pending in lower courts.

During his tenure in Washington, D.C., Mr. Horwich had significant responsibility for almost every competition law matter requiring action by the Solicitor General. He worked closely with the Food and Drug Administration on matters implicating patent law, competition law, regulatory practice, tort law, and federal preemption, and spanning nearly every category of product regulated by that agency. Mr. Horwich also argued, briefed, or supervised the government’s participation in several key Supreme Court and lower court cases in rapidly evolving areas of class action practice and personal jurisdiction law.

Before he joined the Office of the Solicitor General, Mr. Horwich was a litigator in the San Francisco office of Latham & Watkins LLP. He served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Samuel A. Alito and Sandra Day O’Connor, as well as now-retired Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and the late Judge Edward R. Becker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Mr. Horwich earned his law degree from Stanford Law School, where he was elected Order of the Coif and served as president of the Stanford Law Review and co-president of the Kirkwood Moot Court Board. He received his undergraduate degree in chemistry magna cum laude from Princeton University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded a prize in physical chemistry.