About
Meet Ben Opipari
Growing up in Rockville, Maryland, Ben Opipari told his high school newspaper that he’d eventually front the band Bon Jovi, only he’d rename it Ben Jovi. That did not come to pass. (He did co-author a best-selling rock memoir in 2024, but we’re not there yet.)
Instead, years later in 2011 Ben founded Persuasive Matters, Inc., delivering writing programs to law firms worldwide to help them perfect the art of clear and direct legal writing. Ben’s clients include many of the top law firms in the world, but he also delivers programs to the consulting and financial services industries.
Like any good writer, Ben brings life experience to his programs. He worked at a record store in college and thought about a career in the music industry, so his first job was at WKLQ radio in Grand Rapids, Michigan. While it was fun hanging out with rock stars, Ben went back to school for his Master of Arts in Teaching from The American University and became a special education teacher for kids with learning disabilities in Montgomery County, Maryland.
After a few years in the public school system, Ben received his PhD in English Language and Literature from The Catholic University of America, specializing in 20th century American dramatic literature. He became director of the writing center at Colgate University, where he taught in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric and trained students and faculty to be writing coaches. It was at Colgate where Ben also served as a volunteer EMT and wrote about his experiences in the Washington Post.
Upstate New York winters proved to be too much, however, so Ben moved back to the DC area, and from 2006 to 2011 he was the in-house writing instructor at Howrey LLP, a worldwide litigation firm. He developed and implemented a writing curriculum for the firm’s 700 attorneys through seminars and coaching. When the firm dissolved in 2011, Ben founded Persuasive Matters.
Ben’s coaching experience is not limited to legal writing. He was a head high school track coach for ten years, where he coached ten All-Americans, many state champions, and even a future Olympian. Ben has been a coach and an educator in some form for many years, and that’s his strength: he’s not just a speaker, he’s a teacher.
Now back to that rock memoir: in 2024 he published Desolation: A Heavy Metal Memoir by Mark Morton with Ben Opipari (Hachette Books). Morton is Ben’s good friend and a guitarist in the band Lamb of God. Ben also hosts the popular music podcast Songwriters on Process, where he interviews songwriters (over 400 and counting) about their creative process. Ben lives in the Washington, DC area with his wife and four children. He can be reached at ben@persuasivematters.com.
Ben at Athens Porchfest
