Benjamin S. Morrell

Ben is a litigator in Taft’s Employment and Labor Relations group. His practice focuses on complex employment disputes involving class and collective actions, restrictive covenants, wage-and-hour issues, and trade secrets. He regularly advises clients in compliance matters and has experience guiding businesses through investigations by state and federal agencies.

Ben also maintains a broad appellate practice. He has argued in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and briefed cases in federal and state appellate courts across the country. Ben focuses his pro bono work on representing indigent clients on appeal under the Criminal Justice Act. In 2023, he successfully appealed the denial of a pro bono client’s habeas petition challenging a statutory maximum 50-year sentence for a non-violent drug crime. The Seventh Circuit vacated the district court’s adverse ruling and remanded for an evidentiary hearing to further develop the client’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel at sentencing.

Before joining Taft, Ben served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard Allen Griffin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and to the Honorable J. Daniel Breen and S. Thomas Anderson of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. He earned his J.D. from Duke University School of Law and his bachelor’s degree from Rhodes College.

Ben regularly authors articles on current issues in labor and employment law. His writings have appeared in several publications, including Law360 and Employee Benefit Plan Review.

• In a precedent-setting case, successfully challenged a federal agency’s adverse decision on constitutional grounds in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, attaining vacatur and a new hearing before a different administrative law judge.
• Successfully appealed to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals the denial of a pro bono client’s habeas corpus petition challenging his statutory maximum sentence for a non-violent drug crime, attaining vacatur and remand for an evidentiary hearing.
• Attained complete dismissal of unfair labor practice charges following a trial on the merits in the National Labor Relations Board.
• Attained summary judgment of all claims in a high-dollar federal employment discrimination and retaliation lawsuit brought under Title VII and the ADA.
• Attained dismissal from a putative collective/class action alleging wage-and-hour violations, and compelled individual arbitrations of the lead plaintiffs’ claims.