• Matthew M. Madden handles high-stakes trial, appellate and enforcement matters, in particular bankruptcy and investment-related litigation, securities class actions, auditor defense, and complex commercial cases, including contract disputes, business torts and fiduciary duty claims. Matt also represents businesses, organizations and individuals before the U.S. Supreme Court and in appellate courts throughout the country.

    Matt represents bondholders and other creditors at trial and on appeal in corporate and municipal reorganizations in a variety of industries, and debtors as special litigation and investigations counsel. Among his most notable work, Matt argued and won a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision about bankruptcy conversions from Chapter 13 to Chapter 7, and he has briefed numerous other appeals in courts across the country. Matt also defends major public companies, and their directors and officers, against securities class actions, stockholder derivative suits, and books-and-records demands. And Matt represents accounting firms and professionals in securities litigation, SEC and PCAOB proceedings, and client disputes.

    Experience

    • Represented holders of over $3 billion of Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority revenue bonds during PREPA’s restructuring proceedings, including defending a lien-challenge adversary proceeding, litigating a three-day claim-estimation hearing, and investigating and briefing objections to a plan of reorganization.

    • Represented Alta Mesa Holdings LP as special litigation and investigations counsel in the energy company’s Chapter 11 case, conducting what the bankruptcy court called a “carefully” done “extreme analysis” of potential claims against related parties, examining the company’s chief restructuring officer at a contested $320 million sale hearing, and representing the company in multiple adversary proceedings.

    • Representing a large investment fund as lead counsel in breach-of-contract litigation over defaulted Venezuela bonds pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

    • Representing insured bondholders as lead counsel in challenging a monoline insurer’s purported acceleration of obligations to pay claims.

    • Defended multiple investment funds in breach-of-contract cases involving alleged trades of term loans, claim participations and other investments.

    • Argued and briefed, as lead counsel, the winning side of the unanimous U.S. Supreme Court bankruptcy decision in Harris v. Viegelahn, 575 U.S. 498 (2015), concerning the conversion of cases from Chapter 13 to Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code.

    • Argued and briefed, as lead counsel, a pending D.C. Circuit appeal on behalf of the Republic of Djibouti involving the confirmation of foreign arbitration awards.

    • Argued and briefed, as lead counsel, a successful 11th Circuit criminal-sentencing appeal, and subsequently obtained the client’s immediate release over the government’s objection.

    • Argued and briefed, as lead counsel, a petition for review of agency action in the D.C. Court of Appeals on behalf of a software company serving independent drivers in the ride-share industry.

    • Represented bondholders, shareholders and other parties in numerous appeals stemming from the bankruptcy reorganizations of an investment management company, a major silicone manufacturer, a national media conglomerate, a large telecommunications company and a significant lumber operation.

    • Obtained dismissal of a $1.5 billion securities class action and multiple stockholder derivative actions alleging improper billing practices by a public company that owns and operates more than 350 inpatient medical facilities, and its directors and officers.

    • Obtained dismissal of securities fraud claims against a leading global communications device company and its officers in a class action alleging illegal channel stuffing and seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

    • Defended a public company hospital system in a securities class action seeking more than $1 billion in damages, based on alleged misleading statements about hospital billing practices.

    • Defending public company directors and officers against a stockholder derivative action alleging excessive compensation.

    • Represented a major accounting firm and its current and former employees during SEC investigations involving the firm’s public-company audits or Appendix K reviews.

    • Represented Delaware corporations in connection with books-and-records demands from stockholders, including limiting demands at a hearing before the Chancery Court.

    • Obtained summary judgment, and affirmance on appeal, for a national bank against claims arising from the bank’s agreement to the cancellation of a $450 million wire transfer to a new company claiming it could provide 100 million N95 masks to California during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    • Obtained, as lead counsel to a startup company, a federal court’s dismissal of a consumer class action seeking more than $4 billion in damages for alleged unfair and deceptive trade practices.

    Credentials

    Education

    • J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 2007
    • B.A., University of Virginia, 2001

    Bar Admissions

    • District of Columbia, 2009
    • Massachusetts, 2008

    Clerkships

    • Honorable Stephen F. Williams, U.S.C.A., D.C. Circuit

    Court Admissions

    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • U.S.C.A., 1st Circuit
    • U.S.C.A., 2nd Circuit
    • U.S.C.A., 3rd Circuit
    • U.S.C.A., 4th Circuit
    • U.S.C.A., 5th Circuit
    • U.S.C.A., 6th Circuit
    • U.S.C.A., 11th Circuit
    • U.S.C.A., D.C. Circuit
    • U.S.D.C., District of Columbia