Jonathan Bench Bio

Jonathan Bench assists companies, entrepreneurs, and investment funds in international and domestic commercial transactions. He has extensive experience guiding clients to creative and pragmatic solutions in their mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, financings, and foreign direct investments. His global clientele spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. Jonathan has worked and consulted in the U.S., Asia, and South America, and he is fluent in Chinese and Cantonese and is working toward Spanish fluency. He is passionate about diving deep into cutting-edge industries and difficult markets to make sense of the chaos in those fast-paced and often murky legal environments. He represents a variety of manufacturers, brokers, and retailers in their global supply chain structuring and restructuring projects, typically involving China or nearshoring away from China to Southeast Asia and Latin America. Jonathan has particular interest and expertise in emerging technologies, such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain. He represents founders who are developing AI tools for a range of industries and use cases across consulting, marketing, education, customer service, and middleware to automate AI processes. His blockchain experience encompasses layer-2 blockchain developers, international DAO communities, NFT artists and studios, metaverse companies, and celebrity brand influencers. He is a sought-after speaker and writer for national and global organizations on U.S. and international business development. Jonathan has written over 150 blog posts and articles and presented on various business and legal topics over 80 times on four continents. He serves on various boards and dedicates time to mentoring entrepreneurs and students through several nonprofit organizations. His contributions have earned him recognition as a top author on Lexology and accolades from various industry groups as a prominent lawyer. Most recently, Jonathan was named to Utah’s Legal Elite 100 and described as “an excellent attorney but also a thought leader in two very different industries: international business and blockchain.” From selling homegrown raspberries and window-washing services to non-emergency medical transportation services, Jonathan understands the entrepreneurial grind from the inside. He describes himself as a businessperson who went to law school rather than a lawyer who studied business. His clients value his ability to think like a business owner as he provides them with pragmatic legal guidance while ensuring that his legal strategies underpin, not undermine, his clients’ larger strategic goals. In his spare time, Jonathan is often with his wife Mary Ann and their five children, exploring the beautiful Utah outdoors, practicing martial arts, enjoying music, and working on getting his Spanish to be as good as his Chinese.