Roberta J. Benson devotes her practice to commercial litigation with an emphasis on first-party insurance disputes and high exposure insurance defense. She represents insurance companies and other businesses in federal and state courts throughout the U.S., including nationwide class actions and bad faith cases in notoriously plaintiff-friendly venues such as South Texas, Mississippi, and Georgia. Ms. Benson has represented domestic and foreign insurers in lawsuits ranging from professional indemnity, life, property, and disability claims to consumer fraud, market conduct and sales practices, variable annuity, and reinsurance disputes, in a variety of capacities including coverage, insurance defense, and monitoring counsel.
Ms. Benson serves as the firm’s assistant general counsel and claims counsel.
Ms. Benson received her B.S. summa cum laude in computer science in 1978 from Syracuse University and her M.S. in systems management in 1987 from the University of Southern California. She received her J.D. in 1992 from the George Washington University Law School, where she was a member of law review and Order of the Coif.
Prior to entering law school, Ms. Benson developed software in a variety of command and control, research and development, and engineering/manufacturing environments, first as a U.S. Air Force Officer developing air and space defense systems, and subsequently as a systems engineer for Hughes Helicopters and Singer/Link Flight Simulation.
Ms. Benson is a member of the State Bar of Texas and is admitted to practice before all Texas district courts, as well as before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Western and Northern Districts of Texas.