Sheppard Mullin Adds 2 Brown Rudnick Litigators
Benjamin G. Chew
Honieh Udenka
Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP is adding two more Brown Rudnick LLP attorneys to its ranks, including the litigator who served as co-counsel in actor Johnny Depp’s 2022 defamation trial against his former wife, Amber Heard, the firm said Tuesday.
Benjamin G. Chew has joined the Sheppard Mullin business trial practice group as a partner in its Washington office. He spent the past six years with Brown Rudnick, where he co-chaired the firm’s brand and reputation management group. He represents clients in complex commercial litigation and commercial disputes and is known for having high-profile clients, including Depp and Cher, whom he represented in litigation against one of her former financial advisers.
Additionally, Brown Rudnick associate Honieh Udenka has joined Sheppard Mullin’s business trial practice and will be based in the firm’s Orange County office in Costa Mesa, California.
Chew and Udenka join former Brown Rudnick colleagues Camille Vasquez, Leo Presiado, Andrew Crawford, Jessica Meyers and Samuel Moniz, who moved to Sheppard Mullin in August.
“I am excited to rejoin my team and continue building on Sheppard Mullin’s stellar reputation as a litigation powerhouse,” Chew said in a statement Tuesday. “Our brand and reputation management practice will benefit from the firm’s full-service platform and deep industry expertise.”
Luca Salvi, chair of Sheppard Mullin, speaks highly of Chew and Udenka.
“Ben brings unparalleled trial experience to the firm,” Salvi said in a statement Tuesday. “In addition to his well-known litigation matters for Johnny Depp, he has represented heads of state, foreign governments and business leaders in a variety of matters across the globe. We are delighted to have Ben and Honieh join the firm and expand our business trial practice.”
Robert Friedman, co-leader of Sheppard Mullin’s business trial practice group, is also glad to have them join the team.
“Ben and Honieh add even more depth and experience to our team’s capabilities,” Friedman said in a statement Tuesday. “They bring great synergies with their brand reputation experience and our private wealth and fiduciary litigation and entertainment practices.”
Chew earned his law degree in 1988 from the University of Virginia School of Law after earning his bachelor’s degree at Princeton University.
He headed the commercial litigation and antitrust group at Patton Boggs LLP, where he practiced for more than 20 years. Around the time of Patton Boggs’ 2014 merger with Squire Sanders to form Squire Patton Boggs LLP, Chew departed to join Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. However, just a few months later, he resigned from Pillsbury Winthrop, citing a potential conflict relating to his previous affiliation with Patton Boggs. Later in 2014, he joined Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP and in 2018 moved to Brown Rudnick.
Chew has represented the government of Dubai in securing the dismissal of International Bechtel’s petition to confirm a multimillion-dollar arbitration award in the U.S. and won a summary judgment for the government of Honduras in U.S. litigation. Additionally, in 2013, after passing the Kosovo bar exam, Chew secured an acquittal for the holder of the country’s telecommunications franchise there in criminal proceedings brought by the European Union Rule of Law Mission.
Udenka earned her law degree in 2017 from the University of California, Irvine School of Law and her bachelor’s degree from Eastern Mediterranean University in Cyprus. She worked as a summer associate with Brown Rudnick, then joined the firm upon law school graduation.
Sheppard Mullin traces its origins to 1927 in Los Angeles. Today the firm has over 1,100 attorneys in 16 offices worldwide.
—Editing by Janice Carter Brown and Karin Roberts.
