Experts
Kassius Benson
Phone: 612.267.6972 kassius@kassiusbenson.com LinkedIn
Kassius Benson is an experienced, effective, and expert trial strategist and advocate for his clients. He is an asset to any litigation team. Prior to focusing on trial consulting and jury consulting, Kassius Benson was a trial lawyer for 30 years. During that time, Kassius represented clients in high-stakes criminal and civil trial matters. He clients include individuals in courts throughout Minnesota, Washington, DC, and the entire nation in both federal and state courts. His trials involved major financial crimes, homicide, conspiracy cases, and all major criminal charges. Kassius Benson’s representative clients include individuals in need of help, attorneys, doctors, professional athletes, entertainers, corporations, small business owners, firefighters, federal government employees, law enforcement officers, and legal agencies. He also engages in extensive pro bono work.
From January 1, 2021 through 2022, Kassius Benson stepped away from private practice and served as the Chief Public Defender for the Hennepin County Public Defender's Office in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In his two-years in the position of Chief Defender, Kassius made advancements at the Office by developing and establishing a comprehensive Attorney Training and Development Program as well as increasing diversity in the Office through national recruiting efforts. Both measures fostered true client-centered representation. In January 2023, Kassius Benson re-entered private practice.
Kassius Benson received his Juris Doctor (JD) from the University of Minnesota Law School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After law school, Kassius Benson worked at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS) in Washington, D.C., where he defended indigent clients charged with serious felony criminal offenses in the District of Columbia Superior Court. Here, Kassius developed the fearlessness, work ethic, and trial skills necessary to effectively advocate for his clients at every stage of a criminal case.
Kassius Benson trains and mentors students and lawyers in criminal defense and trial advocacy. Kassius Benson has devoted a great deal of time developing training systems and programs for public defender agencies. His training programs and techniques have been utilized in multiple public defender offices throughout the nation.
He was a founding faculty member at the Minnesota Public Defender Trial School, started in 2004, and has trained lawyers in Minnesota, Georgia and Alabama. Kassius has been awarded the Ira Mickenberg Award for his Outstanding Contribution to Minnesota Public Defense. He previously taught at the University of Minnesota Law School’s Misdemeanor Defense and Prosecution Clinics as an adjunct professor.
Kassius Benson’s extensive background as an experienced lead trial lawyer, who has tried virtually every type of case, separates him from many trial consultants.