Benjamin Terry
Benjamin Terry is a Legal Assistant at Arias Sanguinetti Trial Lawyers, based in the firm’s Northern California office. He supports attorneys throughout the litigation process, including legal drafting, case management, client communication, research, records management, and other work necessary to keep cases moving accurately and efficiently.
He approaches his work thoughtfully and deliberately. With clients, his goal is to be someone they feel comfortable speaking with and someone who makes clear that their questions and concerns are being heard and taken seriously. His connection to the legal profession began early. Both of Benjamin’s parents are attorneys who met in law school, and his grandfather was also an attorney who founded a law firm. Growing up, Benjamin regularly encountered the profession through his family and visits to the office, although he did not immediately choose a legal career for himself.
Benjamin began working in the legal field on the plaintiff-side at a small firm handling personal injury and product liability cases, where he focused heavily on research. His work included gathering and organizing evidence, reviewing deposition materials, and building research resources involving traffic fatalities, battery fires, and autopilot incidents. That experience sparked an ongoing interest in traffic safety, automotive technology, mobility, public safety, and how emerging technologies affect the people who use and share public spaces. He later joined Arias Sanguinetti after being drawn to the opportunity to develop his skills in a firm where professionalism and strong legal work could coexist with a healthy workplace culture.
He has worked in education, with the U.S. Census Bureau, in the service industry, and as a Lyft driver. Those jobs exposed him to people from widely different backgrounds and reinforced his ability to communicate with individuals whose lives, education, work, or experiences may look very different from his own. He particularly values being able to relate to people without making the legal profession feel inaccessible or removed from everyday life.
His academic background in American history strongly informs the way he approaches research and legal work. His interest began during childhood, when his mother would take Benjamin and his brother to historical sites. He developed particular interests in geography and military history before eventually deciding in college to study the subject he genuinely enjoyed rather than choosing a major solely based on future career prospects. For Benjamin, studying history is ultimately about studying people. The discipline requires research, reading, critical thinking, context, and an understanding that present circumstances are often the result of events and decisions that came before. He believes looking backward can help explain how society arrived at the present while also informing how things might be improved for the future. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in American History from the University of North Texas.
Benjamin is a member of the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC), the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA), and CDLC. Outside of work, Benjamin enjoys movies, live music, current events, history books, Stephen King, hiking, nature, and spending time outdoors.