With Eye on Clients’ Goals, Bottom Lines For 18 Years, Represents Companies From Real Estate & Hospitality To Health Care & Financial Services Sectors
Matthew Wright, who has been first- and second-chair counsel in jury and bench trials for nearly two decades but who has made a name for himself by using civil litigation as a business tool, has joined McCarter & English.
Matt, who has represented business clients in a wide swath of industry sectors, is a partner in the firm’s Business Litigation group and is resident in the Washington office.
He is most closely associated with commercial real estate, where he handles business disputes and property tax appeals; hospitality; M&A litigation, where he defends shareholder class actions; consumer goods, where he handles Lanham Act false advertising cases; and health care. He also has significant experience in the cannabis, charter school and furniture sectors. Besides litigation, he handles matters related to licensing enforcement, particularly in the consumer electronics field.
“Some litigators focus on one or two core areas, but Matt thrives on learning about his clients’ underlying business models, making him an extremely valuable generalist,” said Tom Finn, who heads the 400-lawyer firm’s litigation group. “He prides himself on using the tool of civil litigation to maximize leverage at every point along the dispute continuum. His ability to marry business exigencies with outstanding legal skills makes him a valuable addition for our clients.”
Adds McCarter’s chairman, Mike Kelly: “Matt’s joining fits right into our goal of expanding our national litigation platform and serving clients across the country. He will be a great addition to our growing DC office.”
Matt’s successes include a $69 million summary judgment, for a plaintiff patent pool that licenses consumer electronics technology, against two Chinese companies and their individual owners. In another matter, following a three-week breach of fiduciary duty trial on behalf of a 50 percent shareholder in a telecommunications company against the other half-owner, where he won a $103 million jury verdict on a counterclaim and defense verdict asserted against his client – one of the largest jury awards in the nation that year.
A cum laude graduate of Princeton who earned his law degree at Boston College Law School, Matt comes to McCarter from Arent Fox, where he was a partner. Outside the office, he reads contemporary literature, collects South African wine and art, and travels to southern Africa with his family.