Matthew (Matt) J. Mertens Partner

Matt Mertens is a trial lawyer who has won victories for his clients in state and federal courts around the country. His recent client successes include obtaining summary judgment on a $14 million breach of contract claim for a major residential lender and procuring dismissal, on jurisdictional grounds, of defamation and tortious interference claims against a high-net-worth individual client.

Matt focuses his practice on contract disputes; product liability defense; public sector law, including First Amendment issues; and data privacy and technology issues. He regularly litigates trade secret and business misappropriation cases, including violations of nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements, and he recently obtained a preliminary injunction against a former employee who had stolen competitively sensitive information from a client in the tech industry.

Matt’s product liability work includes the defense of lawsuits around the country against a major online retailer. These cases run the gamut from routine personal injury issues to complex multiparty wrongful death disputes involving liability allocation between parent and child corporate entities, corporate veil-piercing, and insurance recovery. Matt is an aggressive negotiator of insurance subrogation claims arising from these cases.

In his public sector practice, Matt defends local and state public bodies against tort claims and is an experienced litigator of issues arising under the Oregon Tort Claims Act (OTCA). Matt was also selected as one of a dozen lawyers representing the Biden-Harris campaign in managing the recount of nearly five million ballots in the U.S. presidential election in Georgia, the second-largest recount in American history,

Matt is an avid technologist and leverages generative AI (GAI) and sophisticated electronic discovery techniques to position his clients for success at every phase of litigation. He is an accredited certified information privacy professional (CIPP/US) and regularly presents on issues at the intersection of data privacy, GAI, and electronic discovery.

Matt maintains an active pro bono practice. His recent efforts have included raising constitutional challenges to an incarcerated client’s prison sentence and assisting individuals seeking asylum from political violence in their countries of origin.