Matt maintains an active civil litigation practice in Texas and Louisiana. His practice includes all aspects of civil litigation from initial case assessment through jury verdict and post-judgment motions. Matt counsels and defends clients in construction defect, premises liability, products liability, toxic torts and trucking cases in both federal and state courts. He also has extensive experience advising and defending commercial business litigation cases including those involving breach of contract, theft of trade secrets and breach of fiduciary duty. Further, Matt represents financial institutions in cases involving wrongful foreclosures and disputes arising from warehouse lending agreements.
Practices
- Obtained unanimous defense verdict for our company client and its driver employee in a case in which Plaintiff alleged that our client’s employee’s actions caused Plaintiff to strike our client’s tractor-trailer; after establishing that the evidence and laws of physics made it impossible for the collision to have occurred in the manner Plaintiff contended, the jury found no negligence on behalf of our clients.
- Obtained summary judgement as co-counsel after Plaintiff failed to exercise due diligence in attempting to serve our client with citation within the statute of limitations period; the lawsuit arose from an automobile accident in which the Plaintiff’s vehicle allegedly struck a four-foot-long post lying on the ground in a parking lot owned by our client, the owner of a commercial shopping center in Dallas County, Texas.
- As co-counsel in a wrongful death, premises liability case, argued the charge conference and trial objections that led the Texas Supreme Court to reverse a multi-million dollar wrongful death verdict and render a take-nothing judgment in favor of his client
- Achieved voluntary dismissal of multi-million dollar wrongful death claim based on the Court’s indication during oral argument that it would sustain defendant’s challenges to plaintiff’s expert witnesses
- Obtained voluntary dismissal of federal court injunction and claims against client in international commercial dispute alleging theft of trade secrets
- Prevented improper testing and treatment of evidence in pre-litigation multi-party site investigations to protect clients from subsequent improper and unnecessary litigation
- Handled multiple day long pre-trial hearings in the Texas Asbestos Multi District Litigation (MDL)
- Managed the defense and resolution of thousands of claims for premises and products defects in the Texas Asbestos MDL
Education
- Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, JD, 2004
- University of Texas at Austin, BA, 2000
Admissions
- Texas
- Louisiana
- United States District Courts: Northern District of Texas, Eastern District of Texas, Southern District of Texas, and Western District of Louisiana
Associations
- Cliburn 180°, Vice-chair
- Coastal Conservation Association, Member
Languages
- English
Professional Memberships
- Defense Research Institute (DRI)
- State Bar of Texas, Litigation Section
Related News
Presentations/Publications
- Co-presenter, “Evaluating and Disputing Inflated Medical Bills and Billing Practices–A Guide to Understanding ‘Paid or Incurred’ Statutory Language,” Dallas, TX (February 2020)
- Co-author, “Texas Judicial Panel Establishes Multidistrict Litigation for Opioid Litigation,” Litchfield Alert (July 2018)
- Co-presenter, “The Nuts and Bolts of Premises and Products Liability – An Update,” Texas Paralegal Association (March 2016)
Recognition
- Listed as a Top Attorney in the Fort Worth Magazine annually since 2012 in the area of Civil Law & Litigation
- Named in 360 West Magazine as a Top Attorney 2018 in the area of Civil Litigation
- Previously selected to the Super Lawyers Fort Worth, Texas Rising Stars list in the area of Personal Injury, a designation received by fewer than 2.5 percent of attorneys in the state