Matt’s litigation practice focuses on commercial disputes, consumer class actions, product liability, including medical device litigation, personal injury, real estate and eminent domain. Matt joined the firm’s Litigation Team in Richmond in 1980, following a clerkship with the Hon. John Minor Wisdom on the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1994 Matt moved to the firm’s Atlanta office and continued his diverse litigation practice. He has tried numerous cases in state and federal courts and argued appeals in state and federal court. Matt was a founding member of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee in the 1980s and has served on the Boards of Legal Aid Societies in both Richmond and Atlanta. He is a past President of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc. His trial and appellate experience includes pro bono cases in state and federal courts. Matt is admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eleventh and District of Columbia United States Circuit Courts of Appeal.

Bar Admissions

Education
JD, Washington and Lee University School of Law, cum laude, Editor-in-Chief, Washington and Lee Law Review, 1979

BA, Washington and Lee University, cum laude, 1975

• Substantial experience with multidistrict and complex litigation involving medical devices, pharmaceuticals and other products, including regional defense counsel responsibility in litigation involving orthopedic bone screws, latex gloves and diet drugs, and defense of other cases involving amiodarone, metoclopramide, phentermine, and orthopedic implants.
• General product liability litigation and advice practice involving broad range of consumer and industrial products, including water heaters, control valves, air compressors, PVC products, concrete pipe, agricultural machinery, underground mining equipment, hand tools, liquid natural gas systems, cryogenic cylinders, asbestos, abrasive cutting machines, earth moving equipment, building materials, cellophane, tires, carpet, golf carts, food, and electrical devices.
• Representation of national restaurant company in commercial, intellectual property, real estate, franchise, personal injury and other litigation.
• Representation of international electronic products company in commercial, product liability and consumer class action litigation.
• Representation of Georgia municipalities and development authorities in contested bond validation proceedings and tax litigation.
• Substantial trial experience involving overhead and underground electric distribution lines and equipment, including fires, explosions and numerous electrical contact cases.
• Representation of tire manufacturer in product liability litigation.
• Representation of tobacco company in class action litigation.
• Representation of employers and individuals in cases involving covenants not to compete, confidentiality agreements and intellectual property claims.
• Representation of petroleum pipeline company in toxic tort litigation and in class action arising out of pipeline rupture and EPA Clean Water Act enforcement action.
• Eminent domain practice for both condemning authorities and landowners, involving streets and highways, electric transmission and distribution lines and other utility projects, as well as inverse condemnation.

• Member, Defense Research Institute and Drug & Medical Device Litigation Section
• Member, American Bar Association's Product Liability Committee and Food & Supplements Committee
• Former member, Atlanta Bar Association's Judicial Selection and Tenure Committee
• Member, Georgia State Bar's Elections Committee
• Member, Advisory Committee, Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc.
• Former member, Product Liability Advisory Council
• Member, Old War Horse Lawyers Club
• Master and Executive Committee Member, Bleckley Inn of Court
• Former President, Washington and Lee Law Council, 2006-2007

• Listed in Chambers USA for Litigation 2007, 2010-2017
• Listed in Best Lawyers in America 2012-2016 for Commercial Litigation, Personal Injury Litigation and Product Liability Litigation. A description of the selection methodology can be found on Super Lawyers’ webpage. 
• Named a Super Lawyer, as published in Atlanta Magazine and Georgia Super Lawyers magazine®, 2004-2016, Business Litigation, Class Action/Mass Tort, and General Litigation categories
• Named by Georgia Trend magazine®, December 2005, 2006, and 2007 as a member of Georgia’s “Legal Elite” in the Personal Injury category and the Business Litigation category 2006. A description of the selection methodology can be found on Georgia Trend’s webpage. 
• Named by Who’s Who Legal, in Product Liability category, 2007, 2014 & 2016

• Class Action Certified on Omega-3 Health Claims in Shelled Walnuts, American Bar Association Section of Litigation Product Liability News
• Certified Class Actions Rise on Food Healthfulness Claims, Defense Research Institute Strictly Speaking