Ben Hattem

Ben Hattem is an associate at Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP. He works on complex litigation and prelitigation matters in federal and state court.

Mr. Hattem has served as a law clerk to the Honorable William A. Fletcher on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Honorable Goodwin H. Liu on the Supreme Court of California, and the Honorable Myron H. Thompson on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama 

He graduated with highest pro bono distinction from Stanford Law School, where he was an editor of the Stanford Law Review, a teaching assistant to Professor Pamela Karlan and Professor Rabia Belt, and a member of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic.  While in the clinic, Mr. Hattem was part of the three-student team that drafted the merits briefing and assisted with oral argument preparation on behalf of the plaintiffs in the landmark Title VII case Bostock v. Clayton County.

Before law school, Mr. Hattem worked as a journalist and won the New York Press Club’s 2016 Nellie Bly Award for best work by an early-career reporter. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College.

REPRESENTATIVE CASES

• Doe v. Bondi, D.D.C. No. 25-cv-00286-RCL (filed Jan. 30, 2025): RBGG and co-counsel NCLR, GLAD Law, and Brown Goldstein & Levy LLP represent thirteen transgender women in federal prison in a case challenging President Trump’s executive order which requires the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to implement unlawful policies that would deny these women necessary medical and transfer them to men’s prisons.  Alongside the complaint we filed a motion for temporary restraining order on January 30, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to protect our clients from imminent transfer to men’s facilities and the risks of sexual violence, physical harm, and medical deterioration.  On February 4, 2025 the Court granted our request for a Temporary Restraining Order, and on February 24, 2025 entered a Preliminary Injunction finding we had shown a likelihood of success on the merits of our Eighth Amendment claim.  The preliminary injunction has been extended multiple times since that and requires BOP to continue to house all thirteen women in women’s prisons and to continue providing them medical treatment for their gender dysphoria.  The government has appealed the preliminary injunction orders and oral argument is scheduled for September 5, 2025 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. More information about the case including filings is available here.