About Alexander
Alexander Benikov built a career that moves between courtrooms and classrooms. He completed a bachelor’s degree in international studies at Southern Oregon University in 2004 and followed that with a master’s in social science in 2005. He earned his Juris Doctor from Western Michigan University in 2009.
After law school, Benikov launched his own firm and began splitting time between private practice and public service. In 2009 he established Benikov Law Office and also served of counsel at the Law Office of Bain and Lauritano. Early in his legal work he took contract assignments, including a stint with the City of Phoenix Public Defenders Office in 2011.
Public defense work became a throughline in his career. In 2013 he held public defender roles for the City of Mesa and the City of Scottsdale, and that same year he served as chief public defender for the City of Guadalupe. He also took assignments on the other side of the docket, acting as a special prosecutor for the City of Quartzite in 2014. In 2017 Benikov sat as a judge pro tempore for the Maricopa County Superior Court, giving him experience presiding over matters in a busy county court.
Benikov has paired practice with teaching for more than a decade. He has taught as an adjunct at Arizona Summit Law School (2012), St. Francis Law School (2017), and has held adjunct roles at Grand Canyon University and Baker College in 2019. In 2021 he worked with the Sandra Day O Connor College of Law alumni and development program at Arizona State University as an adjunct professor. Those classrooms span practical skills and legal instruction aimed at law students and young practitioners.
His professional work centers in Arizona, where he has handled assignments both for municipalities and in private practice. The range of roles—public defender, special prosecutor, judge pro tempore, contract lawyer and firm owner—offers him a broad view of the criminal justice system from multiple vantage points. Colleagues and students have seen him move between advocacy, prosecution and judicial responsibilities during his career.
He continues to practice through Benikov Law Office in Arizona. He divides his time between representing clients in criminal matters and teaching newer lawyers and law students about courtroom procedure and case strategy.
