Matthew E. Lilly
Matthew Lilly joined Finlayson Williams Toffer Roosevelt & Lilly LLP as a partner in 2010. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Lilly practiced for more than eight years in the Orange County office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
Expertise
Mr. Lilly’s practice focuses on business litigation, and he has represented clients in securities class actions, consumer class actions, contract disputes, employment disputes, and many other types of commercial litigation matters. Mr. Lilly has also advised special committees of boards of directors in connection with criminal and regulatory investigations. In these capacities, Mr. Lilly has represented clients in state and federal courts throughout the country, as well as in arbitration proceedings, and has appeared before the SEC.
Prior Experience
A representative sample of Mr. Lilly’s experience follows:
- Represented an international law firm in a legal malpractice action in which plaintiffs sought to recover more than $18 million in damages. After two years of discovery, the plaintiffs’ claims were dismissed in their entirety on summary judgment, and costs of suit were awarded to the law firm.
- Represented a health care company in litigation initiated by the inventor of eye care technology underlying a patent that had been licensed to the defendant. The plaintiff-inventor sought up to $15 million in damages. After extensive fact and expert discovery, all of plaintiffs’ claims were dismissed, with prejudice, on summary judgment.
- Represented the CEO and CFO of a homebuilding company in a securities fraud class action filed on behalf of a putative class of shareholders in federal court. The court granted a motion to dismiss filed by the defendants, and dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims with leave to amend. The plaintiffs chose not to file an amended complaint, and the case was dismissed with prejudice.
- Represented a medical device manufacturer in a construction defect dispute initiated by a general contractor seeking payment of $600,000 in outstanding invoices. The matter proceeded to an arbitration hearing, in which the arbitrator ruled in favor of the defendant, and ordered the general contractor to return $27,000 that had already been paid by the defendant.
- Represented a manufacturer of recreational vehicles, which filed an action seeking to prevent the defendant from using certain trademarks that were the subject of a license agreement. The case proceeded to a bench trial. The parties ultimately settled the dispute after trial, while the matter was still under submission by the court.
- Participated in the Orange County District Attorney’s Trial Attorney Partnership program, in which Mr. Lilly conducted three jury trials, all of which resulted in guilty verdicts.
Education
Mr. Lilly received his law degree in 2001 from UCLA School of Law. At UCLA School of Law, he was Chief Comments Editor of the UCLA Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif, which is awarded to the top ten percent of the graduating class. Mr. Lilly earned a bachelor of arts degree in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine in 1995.
Memberships & Affiliations
Mr. Lilly is also a member of the board of directors of the Raise Foundation – non-profit organization that serves as Orange County’s official child-abuse prevention council.