“From the outside, it’s difficult to distinguish what different peer law firms do and how you will fit in,” Matt said, but he quickly connected with the litigation team that recruited him, including John Warden, Bob Giuffra and Rick Pepperman. In particular, he was drawn to S&C’s guiding principle of producing high-quality, client-driven work across a wide range of practice areas.
“I’ve been lucky to have my practice involve numerous areas, including securities and contract litigation, arbitration, employment cases, Senate investigations, E&P disputes, FIG regulatory work, real estate, M&A and tax controversies. Many of these matters have raised problems with little to no legal precedent. So my time at S&C has never been boring,” he said.
Although Matt has had many mentors at S&C, he says that two people were especially critical in his early development as a lawyer. The first was his contracts professor at Columbia, Allan Farnsworth: “I had the extraordinary opportunity to be taught by and to work closely with the leading contracts scholar of the last half century. He taught me a tremendous amount about nuances in the law and the various ways to think about arguments and approaches to the law.”
The second person was the Honorable Samuel A. Alito Jr., for whom he clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and on the Supreme Court. Justice Alito taught him how to frame arguments, with a particular focus on how your current argument might affect a position you will take later. But, as Matt explained, “the best thing he taught me was how to deal with people with whom you disagree, in cases and in general.”
Outside of the office, Matt spends his time with his wife and four children.