Benjamin May

Ben May is the in-house general counsel at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). Ben provides legal guidance to senior management and the board of directors, coordinates with outside legal counsel, and oversees all legal and compliance issues across the organization.

Prior to joining FDD, Ben was at the U.S. Department of Education as the deputy general counsel for National Security, Ethics, and Compliance, and provided senior legal counsel on issues involving antisemitism, cybersecurity, school safety, and foreign influence in higher education and research. In this role, he served on the Federal Antisemitism Task Force as part of the Trump Administration’s interagency efforts to combat anti-Jewish bigotry in American universities. He also advised on national security issues and coordinated with the intelligence community and interagency partners to protect federal education programs from emerging national security risks.

Earlier, he served at the U.S. Department of Justice for over a decade. At the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division, he worked as a lead trial attorney for the U.S. government in several habeas corpus cases brought against it by Guantanamo Bay detainees. As an attorney in the National Security Division, he represented the government in cases brought before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. He was also a senior attorney with the Office of Legislative Affairs, representing the Department of Justice before Congress and serving as a legislative liaison on national security issues. Following his work with the Justice Department, Ben served as counsel to the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent agency designed to ensure that privacy and civil liberties concerns are appropriately considered in U.S. counterterrorism programs.

Ben retired from the U.S. Air Force Reserves, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, having attained the rank of lieutenant colonel after 23 years of both active duty and reserve service, where he was assigned to the U.S. Air Force’s Operations and International Law Directorate at the Pentagon. He is a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom (2010-2011). He graduated with a J.D. from Emory University and a B.A. in political science and American history from the University of Pennsylvania.