Benjamin Grimes

Benjamin K. Grimes is a leadership coach and consultant serving lawyers at all stages of their careers and in all practice settings. Ben retired from the Army Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps after a 20-year military career and thereafter spent seven years as the Deputy Director of the Department of Justice Professional Responsibility Advisory Office (PRAO). He is a recognized expert in professional responsibility and legal ethics and a lifelong student of professionalism and professional identity. He is on the Advisory Council of the National Legal Mentoring Consortium and was a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism from 2014-2017.

After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Ben began his military career as a helicopter pilot flying the UH-60 Blackhawk, serving in Alabama, Kentucky, and South Korea. He was selected for the Army’s Funded Legal Education Program and joined the JAG Corps, serving as an Administrative Law Attorney and Trial Counsel (military prosecutor) in Germany and as the Senior Trial Counsel for Multi-National Corps—Iraq in Baghdad, Iraq. Following his deployment, Ben represented soldiers as a Trial Defense Counsel and was a Judge Advocate Recruiting Officer before earning his LL.M. and assuming duties as a Senior (Supervisory) Defense Counsel.

Before retiring, Ben spent three years as Professor and Vice Chair of Criminal Law at the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center & School, the nation’s only ABA-accredited federal educational institution. There he taught ethics and professional responsibility to military attorneys – from new Judge Advocates fresh out of law school to seasoned Military Judges of all military services working at both the trial and appellate levels. At the time of his retirement, he was the Deputy Staff Judge Advocate (Deputy General Counsel) at the Army Intelligence and Security Command.

While at the Department of Justice, Ben assisted the Director of PRAO in overseeing the organization’s provision of professional responsibility advice and training to Department attorneys and Assistant United States Attorneys worldwide.