Jurisdictions

• Admitted to the State Bars of Florida & California

• The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

• The U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Middle, and Northern Districts of Florida

• The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

Matthew has a wealth of experience in the class action, mass torts, product liability, and catastrophic injury arenas, as well as in civil appellate practice.

Matthew spent the first part of his career in Boston and Los Angeles, first as an entrepreneur and later as a management and marketing executive. He has produced TV commercials and digital media; built domestic and international sales channels for publishing and entertainment products; and developed e-commerce strategies for a variety of consumer products and services. One day he found himself in the middle of a hate crime, and in the process of helping the victim seek justice, discovered a passion for the law and advocacy.

A series of fateful events brought him to South Florida, where he graduated number one in his class and summa cum laude from the Shepard Broad Law Center at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale in 2009. Along the way he was editor in chief of the Nova Law Review and received the Student Bar Association’s Award for Academic Excellence, an honor chosen by his fellow students.

While in law school Matthew clerked at a boutique “plaintiff’s firm” and was a key part of helping to shape and draft the litigation that became In re: Checking Account Overdraft Litigation, which resulted in over $1 billion in settlements from dozens of U.S. banks that charged customers unjustified overdraft fees.  He was also a key part of shaping and drafting the Florida litigation that became In re: Chinese Manufactured Drywall Product Liability Litigation, which resulted in a $1 billion settlement for thousands of homeowners who unwittingly had defective drywall installed in their homes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the mid-2000’s building boom.

After graduation, he continued along the mass torts/class action path with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill litigation, while also providing litigation support and complex motion practice for numerous multi-million dollar catastrophic injury, product liability, and medical malpractice actions.

In 2014, he was appointed co-class counsel in the Red Bull false advertising class action in the Southern District of New York. Matthew led the oral argument, and the settlement hearing resulted in $13 million to the class and a separate attorney’s fee award of $3.4 million.

Working “of counsel” to the Van Horn Law Group, Matthew has also handled dozens of consumer law cases in state court, and adversary proceedings in bankruptcy court.

Apart from his litigation and appellate focus, Matthew has remained interested in the entrepreneurial spirt. He has helped existing businesses navigate joint ventures and expansions into new products and territories, and he has helped new businesses navigate the start-up, and seed capital process.

Education

• Juris Doctor – Shepard Broad Law Center, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL ~summa cum laude ~ Editor in Chief, Nova Law Review

• Bachelor of Arts – Trinity College, Hartford, CT

Notable Work – 

Past results on this site are no guarantee or prediction of future results.

• On behalf of a teenage athlete who suffered a severe brain injury after a cardiac event that could have been mitigated by an AED – constructed the appellate argument embraced by the Florida Supreme Court to establish that a school owes students a duty to act with reasonable care to take appropriate post-injury efforts to avoid or mitigate further injuries.  Limones v. School Dist. of Lee County, 111 So. 3d 901 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2013); 161 So. 3d 384 (Fla. 2015).
• Crafted the appellate argument to protect NFL players’ brain injury settlements in bankruptcy proceedings, ensuring that they can be exempt from creditors and classified as disability policy benefits. This was a matter of first impression in the U.S. after the NFL Concussion lawsuit.
• In an almost eight-year court battle, successfully defeated the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration’s attempt to recover more than an equitable share of the settlements of three firm clients whose catastrophic and totally disabling permanent injuries were never fully compensated due to uninsured or underinsured tortfeasors.
• Successfully led the argument in New York federal court for the approval of the $16.4 million settlement in the Red Bull Energy Drink false advertising class action.
• Formulated the causes of action and drafted the initial complaints and MDL motions for In re Checking Account Overdraft Litigation (MDL 2036), where his firm was appointed co-lead counsel. The litigation resulted in over $1 billion in settlements with US banks for consumer overdraft fee abuses.
• Formulated the causes of action and drafted the initial complaints for Florida homeowners that launched the $1 billion “Chinese Drywall” litigation (MDL 2047).
• As project attorney for one of the U.S.’s largest medical data companies, navigated and managed a joint venture agreement with a major hospital group and a leading consumer finance company, to create a new “point of care” medical payments product that helps patients instantly cover large health care deductibles and other financial issues.
• Assisted a start-up software company obtain seed-capital financing for their HIPAA compliant point-of-sale, inventory control, and compliance reporting product for the new frontiers in the medical prescription field.  Managed the process from initial term sheet to closed deal.