About Matt Lavine

Being a lawyer is who I am. I believe in the law as a profession of great importance, not merely as the means to make money. For me, the practice of law has always been a way to serve. Only lawyers have the authority and training to challenge, on behalf of another, the actions of the government or a large corporation. Ours is a profession with a unique and powerful role in American society.

Throughout American history, there have always been lawyers who worked, without the promise of fame or fortune, to achieve the best results for the unpopular or the powerless. Whether challenging the establishment or disregarding contemporary popularity, these lawyers have improved American society and the legal system.

I have tried to meet these standards. Like the old counsellor-at-law, I not only work to advance my clients' goals but also to help them consider the long term benefits of their decisions.

Biographical Information

I graduated in 1977 from High Point High School in Prince George's County, Maryland. Following my sophomore year, I was selected as the lone high school student on a panel of teachers and administrators seeking to infuse law-related curriculum into the Price George's County Public Schools. The program led me to invent a board game to teach the criminal justice system to kids. In 1976, the U.S. Patent Office awarded me a patent.

At The Johns Hopkins University, I studied political philosophy and history. After earning my B.A. in 1981, I went to Duke University, where, after my first year in the Law School, I helped to create an interdisciplinary program for the study of U.S. Constituional Law and History. In 1985, I achieved both a J.D. from Duke University's Law School and an M.A. from its Graduate School.

After graduation, I served as as a judicial clerk for the Hon. John J. Garrity of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. I then worked both for the Maryland Public Defender and for a small firm in suburban Washington, D.C. My weeks were often a bit odd: one day I'd be defending indigents accused of crimes and the next I'd represent developers in multi-million dollar commercial real estate disputes.

Choosing to control my practice, I opened my own office in 1988. Over the years, I've taken hundreds of drunk driving and drug cases to trial. I've represented hundreds of victims of accidents on the road and in the workplace and settled wrongful death claims. I've won a verdict of $500,000 on a commercial dispute in federal court and had a university's security system and a school district's discipinary system declared unconstitutional. I also won at trial and on appeal a precedent-setting case in the area of wrongful termination.