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Description of Practice:
Matthew actively works with both our land use and real estate practice groups. Matthew has developed a specialty in redevelopment law, where he provides critical advise to clients regarding prevailing wage, public finance, owner participation agreements, disposition and development agreements and Mello-Roos and other financing districts. Matthew recently assisted several clients in structuring projects to enable the receipt of public funds while limiting the payment of prevailing wages to the improvements funded by the public funds.
As a critical associate in our land use group, Matthew also has extensive experience advising clients with respect to entitlement and title risks prior to acquisition. For example, Matthew assisted with the due diligence review for Blackstone Group's $39 billion dollar acquisition of Equity Office Properties and has advised clients with respect to the potential acquisition of several large office and industrial complexes and residential communities.
Matthew also has extensive experience with the entitlement process, including subdivisions, lot line adjustments, rezones, general and specific plan amendments, development agreements, conditional use permits, variances, affordable housing agreements, initiatives and referenda, exactions, school mitigation and fee agreements, traffic mitigation agreements, utility agreements, maintenance agreements and infrastructure improvement and fee agreements. Matthew has assisted with the entitlement of several master planned communities and commercial and industrial developments. From 2006 through 2008, Matthew oversaw the acquisition, entitlement and sale of a large industrial property for an individual investor.
As part of the entitlement process, Matthew has negotiated several conservation easements with various local, state and federal agencies, including one on a former oil field. Matthew has also appeared before several planning commissions and city councils to secure necessary development approvals.
Matthew actively advises clients with respect to the California Environmental Quality Act, including advising clients how to process entitlements to minimize disruptions from project opposition. Matthew is currently assisting a client with the entitlement of a major movie studio.
Matthew has drafted and negotiated several purchase and sale agreements, option agreements, repurchase agreements, development declarations, easements, leases and licenses. Matthew also has extensive experience with the formation of owner's associations for residential, commercial and industrial projects, including advising clients with respect to the SB 800 "Fix-It" law. Matthew is admitted to the State Bar of California and is a member of the Urban Land Institute.
Educational History:
Matthew received his J.D. from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University in 2005, where he was honored with the Order of the Coif. During law school, Matthew was an editor on the BYU Law Review, President of the Natural Resource Law Society, Civil Chair of the Government and Politics Legal Society, a counselor in the Academic Success Program and a pupil in the American Inns of Court. Matthew also externed for the Honorable Matthew B. Durrant of the Utah Supreme Court, the Honorable Bruce S. Jenkins of the United States District Court for the District of Utah, and for the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Utah.
Prior to law school, Matthew worked for the United States Forest Service on planning issues. Matthew received a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies from the University of Utah in 2001. During college, Matthew took two years off to volunteer as a Spanish-speaking missionary in eastern Washington, where he worked primarily with migratory farm workers and Native American communities.
Personal:
Matthew resides in Irvine with his wife and three children. He is actively involved with the Urban Land Institute and volunteers with the Boy Scouts of America and his church's youth program. | 