Overview
With more than a decade of experience in Washington, Matthew provides clients with strategic and legal advice and helps them navigate intricate and sensitive government processes and the complex regulatory environment. He represents clients before both the Legislative and Executive Branches with tailored strategies for success. He also advises clients on political, reputational, cyber, and national security risk management. He has served in senior roles at the Department of Defense, the Department of the Interior, the Department of State, in the Intelligence Community, on Capitol Hill, and at the White House.
In his public life, Matthew most recently served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics and Global Threats (DASD CN>) within Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC) at the Pentagon. In this role, he led the Department’s counternarcotic, counter threat finance, and counter transnational crime efforts to combat illicit trafficking of drugs, people, wildlife, natural resources, and weapons.
Prior to his role at the Department of Defense, Matthew served as the Counselor for Land and Minerals Management at the Department of the Interior, where he managed policy and regulatory enforcement for oil and gas, coal, and other mineral activity on the Outer Continental Shelf and federal lands. Before that, Matthew served in various roles in the Executive Office of the President culminating as Deputy Assistant to the President and acting White House Cabinet Secretary. As acting Secretary, Matthew served as the primary liaison between the President and the Cabinet. In that role, he and his team coordinated communications, policy, logistics, and managed complex regulatory imoplementation and issues that affected multiple federal agencies.
In addition to his work at Steptoe, Matthew currently serves in the North Carolina Army National Guard in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. In his military capacity, he has spent time in Europe, Africa, and has deployed to various locations in the Middle East. Most recently he deployed in support of Special Operations Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve.
Matthew places a high value on his pro bono practice and community involvement. In that practice, he advises and counsels veterans and veterans service organizations over a broad range of issues including serving as the Chair of the American Legion's National Small Business Task Force, Subcommittee on Subcontracting. He also volunteers with the Congressional Hockey Challenge, Shriners Hospital for Children, and Waterfront Church DC's Night to Shine – an annual prom experience held for teens and young adults with disabilities.
- District of Columbia
- Michigan
- US Supreme Court
- US District Court, Eastern District of Michigan
- US District Court, Western District of Michigan
- US Court of Federal Claims
- US Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
- US Army Criminal Court of Appeals
- US Court of Appeals, Armed Forces
- Master of Science and Technology Intelligence (MSTI), National Intelligence University, 2024, Cyber Intelligence & Data Analytics
- M.A., United States Army War College, 2018, Strategic Studies
- J.D., Western Michigan University, Thomas M. Cooley Law School, 2014
- B.A., Michigan State University, 2010