Benjamin Howard Carney

     Benjamin Carney, a Principal of Gordon, Wolf & Carney, represents real people facing overwhelming debts and suffering from bad business practices. He has successfully represented many thousands of individuals against large companies in class action cases alleging violations of federal and state laws, recovering tens of millions of dollars in relief. Mr. Carney has taken class actions through trial and appeal, and courts have certified him as class counsel in more than twenty cases.

     Mr. Carney has been  standing up in court for the rights of individuals for more than a decade. He successfully litigated consumer protection claims through trial and appeal while still in law school, as a student attorney, and won the Ward & Kershaw Clinical Law Advocacy Prize in 2003. He was one of the first attorneys in Maryland to challenge "foreclosure rescue scams," and obtained significant relief for a number of Marylanders harmed by foreclosure scammers even before the Maryland Legislature passed a law specifically addressing the practice. Less than two years out of law school, he initiated a series of cases successfully challenging faulty vehicle repossession notices to Maryland consumers. Those cases alone have so far resulted in more than $70 million in relief to persons whose vehicles were repossessed. 

     Admitted to practice law in Maryland in 2004, Mr. Carney is also admitted to the bars of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Mr. Carney currently serves on the Board of Directors of Civil Justice, Inc., and is a past  Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Public Justice Center, Inc. He is a member of the American Association for Justice, the Maryland Association for Justice, the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the Maryland Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. He is listed as a SuperLawyers Rising Star, has been named a Fellow of the Maryland Bar Foundation, and is recognized as one of Maryland's "Top 40 Under 40" by the National Trial Lawyers.

     He is a Maryland native, and a graduate of Suitland High School in Prince George's County. He received his B.A. from the Johns Hopkins University in 1999. Before law school, he worked writing and assisting production for PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He obtained his J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law in 2004.