Matt has practiced in the insurance industry, providing coverage opinions, representing primary and excess carriers in coverage disputes, and serving as monitoring and direct defense counsel in cases with significant exposure at the excess and/or umbrella level of insurance coverage. This work included coverage actions stemming from underlying petroleum spills from pipelines causing both significant bodily injury and property damage. He also represented insureds in navigating the product recall process and advised insurers on the liability exposure stemming from policies covering entities whose products had caused bodily injury to customers throughout the country.
For over six years, Matt worked alongside one of New York City’s top criminal defense attorneys and had significant responsibility in the defense of individuals and entities charged with white-collar crimes. In that role, he also defended individuals and entities in SEC and FINRA enforcement and disciplinary actions and handled private securities litigation disputes matters on behalf of both defrauded investors and defendants alleged to have violated federal securities laws. As an outgrowth of this experience in the securities industry, Matt at a later firm also represented employees in the financial sector in negotiating severance agreements, litigating the contours and extent of non-compete agreements and securing equitable buyouts of stock options.
In addition, Matt has worked extensively in special education law, litigating against the New York City Department of Education in both administrative and federal proceedings to ensure the implementation of a free appropriate public education for students with special needs in all five boroughs of New York City. He has brought that special education experience with him to Michigan, and to date has helped a number of Michigan families throughout the state navigate the special education legal process, from preparing for IEP meetings to appeals of administrative law judge decisions to federal court. This is an area of practice in which Matt has expanded the Firm’s legal footprint and looks forward to continuing to expand.
Before entering the private sector, Matt served as a Law Clerk to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals Staff Attorney’s Office for two years following graduation from law school. In that role, he reviewed appellate briefs as well as the factual record on appeal and wrote bench memoranda advising three-judge panels of the Court on the controlling law and operative facts in case before them.
While a student at Brooklyn Law School, Matt had several internships at prominent government and public interest institutions in New York City. He worked as a Student District Attorney at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, Gang Unit as part of Brooklyn Law School’s Prosecutor Clinic for his third year of law school. He also interned with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Criminal Division, the Chambers of the late Judge Joseph McLaughlin on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Division.
In recognition of his accomplishments and experience, in several practice areas, Matt has been selected first as a Super Lawyers’ Rising Star in New York, and then as Super Lawyer in both New York and Michigan. Matt has held Martindale-Hubbell’s AV® Preeminent rating since 2015. Most recently, Matt was named to the DBusiness 2026 Top Lawyers list in Environmental Law.
Matt and his boys since the move to Michigan from New York have become part of a fantastic running program here in Michigan – the SE Michigan Chapter of Ainsley’s Angels. Ainsley’s Angels aims to ensure everyone can experience endurance events and build awareness about America’s special needs community through inclusion in all aspects of life.
Matt enjoys helping coach and judge mock trial and moot court competitions, including having annually judged a national moot court competition with the New York City Bar Association and coached his sibling’s high school mock trial team.
Matt has made it a point to carve out time to serve the legal profession – holding leadership roles for the American Bar Association (Young Lawyers Division Criminal Justice Committee, Vice-Chair – Newsletter Editor), Nassau County Bar Association (Federal Courts Committee, Co-Chair), New York City Bar Association (Criminal Law Committee, Criminal Discovery Subcommittee Chair), Oakland County Bar Association (Providing Access To Legal Services Committee, Member) and Michigan Defense Trial Counsel (Quarterly Newsletter, Co-Editor). He has also been active in government since 2002, including serving as a policy advisor on two New York statewide campaigns, and most recently serving as his Village’s delegate Board Member of an intermunicipal water authority. Most recently, Matt had the opportunity serve on the Board of MI AECRES (2023 – 2025) a group of attorneys and advocates in Michigan passionate about ensuring all children receive the quality education they need to thrive.
Matt’s love of hip hop from an early age, growing up in Queens, New York as that form of music was in its second decade, led him to record as an emcee in his college years. After a long hiatus, due to law school and starting a family, Matt became again involved in hip hop, specifically battle rap. He has helped two of the top battle rap leagues in the United States – one on the East Coast (ECCM / NCNE) and now another in Detroit (Bar Wars) – coordinating with venues, DJs and vendors, scouting for talent, promoting on social media, and hosting battles.
Matt takes great pleasure and finds peace in his exercise and meditation practice and enjoys weekend outdoor activities with his family and their rescue goldendoodle “Noodle”. He is looking forward to continuing to explore the beauty of Metro Detroit Area as well as Michigan and the rest of the Midwest with the help of his family’s Metro Parks, State Park and National Parks passes.
Brooklyn Law School, J.D. 2005
Cornell University, College of Human Ecology, B.S. 2001
The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
A Tribe Called Quest
Tuscany and the Mexican Riviera
Back to the Future
My Dad, Uncles, and Grandfather
