NEW YORK, NY, February 21, 2020 – Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP today announced another key hire as the firm prepares to open an office in Washington, D.C. Joshua Matz, who is returning to the firm after serving as counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, will serve as a firm partner, effective immediately. Matz will be instrumental in launching the firm’s Washington, D.C. office, and will continue to add to its ranks in the coming months as the firm increases its presence in the Washington, D.C. market.
“We are so thrilled to be welcoming Joshua, one of the greatest legal minds of his generation, back to the firm after he played such a key role in working with the House staff on impeachment,” said Roberta (“Robbie") Kaplan, Founding Partner, Kaplan Hecker & Fink. “Our firm is dedicated to the goal of combining a cutting-edge, high-stakes litigation practice with an equally strong commitment to the public interest. Joshua personifies those values and is perfectly positioned to help lead our D.C. office as we continue to grow as a firm while approaching our third year in existence.”
Matz, who first joined Kaplan Hecker & Fink as counsel at its founding in 2017, is a widely-cited expert in constitutional law and civil rights. He returns to the firm having served as counsel on the House Judiciary Committee, where he worked on the House impeachment inquiry and Senate impeachment trial. As partner, Matz’s practice will continue to focus on constitutional law, appellate litigation, and complex commercial disputes, oriented toward financial and technology sector legal issues.
“After serving among House Judiciary Committee counsel for the impeachment proceedings against President Trump, I am thrilled to rejoin my colleagues at Kaplan Hecker & Fink—and to jumpstart the firm’s D.C. office,” said Matz. “I look forward to putting my Judiciary Committee experience to use in our cutting-edge practice and our brand new office.”
“Expanding our work into Washington, D.C. is such an exciting opportunity for our young firm,” said Julie Fink, Managing Partner, Kaplan Hecker & Fink. “Our new D.C. office will enable the firm to expand our litigation work, provide enhanced services to existing clients, and engage with a new clientele. I have the utmost trust in Joshua to hit the ground running and establish a robust litigation practice in our new office.”
Matz is a widely-cited expert in constitutional law, civil rights, and presidential impeachment. Together with Harvard Law School Professor Larry Tribe, Matz published “The Constitutional Inevitability of Same-Sex Marriage,” 71 Maryland Law Review 471 (2012), an award-winning book on the Supreme Court, Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution (2014), and a second influential book, To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment (2018). Matz is also the publisher of Take Care, a blog dedicated to legal issues raised by the executive branch, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where he co-teaches an advanced seminar on constitutional litigation. He has contributed articles to The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and Wired. Matz has been recognized extensively for his work, including being named by Forbes to its 2014 “30 under 30” Law & Policy List and its 2016 “Alumni All-Star” list of past honorees.
Matz earned his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, magna cum laude, and his M.St. from Oxford University, with distinction. He earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude. Matz served as a clerk for Hon. Anthony M. Kennedy, Supreme Court of the United States, Hon. Stephen Reinhardt, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and Hon. J. Paul Oetken, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.