December 8, 2025
Benjamin D. Brown of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC pushed the UFC to increase its settlement payout to “life-changing” sums for fighters accusing it of wage suppression, earning his place as one of the 2025 Law360 Competition MVPs.
His biggest accomplishment:
For Brown, the year’s achievements came down to the split screen view of his transition to Cohen Milstein managing partner, a role he took on last year, even as he stayed active in his various cases, including major ongoing litigation over real estate broker fee rules.
“Our firm is at the center of so many high-profile litigations that I think managing this firm is almost a full-time job,” Brown said.
But at the same time, “litigation is more than a full-time job. … And the only way to make it work is by trusting my partners here at the firm who stand by my side and take on a lot of the day-to-day operations and management of individual litigations,” he said. “I think that to do it successfully, you have to have a lot of trust, a lot of really good teamwork, and a culture of sharing responsibility and working closely together. So it’s been gratifying that I’ve been able to stay involved in all my cases, meaningfully involved in all my cases.”
His proudest moment:
Brown said he takes particular pride in the February final approval hearing in which a Nevada federal judge signed off on a $375 million settlement in a class action that has taken more than a decade to settle in which fighters accused UFC of suppressing their wages. U.S. District Judge Richard F. Boulware II had rejected a previous version of the deal, saying he wanted to see the fighters getting “life-changing” sums and sending the parties back to cobble together a more generous agreement.
Brown noted that Judge Boulware wanted to hear from the fighters themselves to ensure the amounts were appropriately meaningful, so Cohen Milstein and its co-counsel talked to a great number of the class members.
“We presented them with estimates of what their actual award would be if the settlement was approved, which it ultimately was. We showed them what they could expect, and we asked them what this money would mean to them,” he said.
The fighters responded with a range of things they could do with the money, including paying for medical bills, education and more, according to Brown.
“Fighter after fighter wrote declarations about how this money was going to help them and change their lives. And it’s a rare thing when you specialize in class actions to get down to that level of interviewing individual class members at the end of a successful case. And hearing how important those results are going to be,” he said. “It’s just incredibly gratifying. And certainly one of my proudest moments of the past year and my career to date.”
Why antitrust law:
Brown said he is an antitrust attorney because, at a “systemic level,” he likes thinking about things on economic lines and because he believes in his role that he says “helps police corporate overreach and misdeeds.” But there are also the individual moments where he gets “to see the positive impact that your cases are having on your clients.”