180 Grand Avenue, Suite 1380
Oakland, CA 94612
He has ably represented plaintiffs, municipalities, and states in nearly every aspect of litigation for 15 years.
Matt joined Keller Rohrback after co-counseling with attorneys at the firm to represent plaintiffs in several complex, multidistrict cases. In recent years, Matt focused on representing plaintiffs in the In re Facebook, Inc. Consumer Privacy Litigation MDL, which consolidated numerous cases that arose from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The case settled for $725 million, the largest settlement to date of a U.S. privacy class action and the most Facebook has ever paid to resolve private litigation. Before that, Matt represented cities, counties, and states in nationwide litigation concerning the prescription opioid crisis. Among other roles in those cases, he represented the City and County of San Francisco, whose case was remanded as an MDL bellwether from In re National Opiate Litigation.
Matt’s extensive litigation experience also includes representing investors in numerous securities fraud cases, among them Villella v. Chemical & Mining Company of Chile, Inc., In re St. Jude Medical, Inc. Securities Litigation, In re LeapFrog Enterprise, Inc. Securities Litigation, and Jones v. Pfizer Inc., each of which resulted in significant plaintiff recoveries. All told, his teams have recovered more than $1 billion for investors, consumers, and municipalities.
Matt received his B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1996 and graduated magna cum laude from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco in 2008. After law school, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Joseph A. Greenway, Jr. on both the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He was also the Kazan-Wallace Attorney at Public Justice PC.
Matt has authored published articles on multiparty discovery in the National Opiate Litigation MDL, special solicitude for state standing to bring suit, arbitration agreements in adhesive contracts, and First Amendment protections for hate speech considered through the lens of European law.
Paul J. Geller, Aeilsh M. Baig, Thomas E. Egler, Matthew S. Melamed, Planning for Aggressive Mutiparty Discovery in a Fast-Moving, Complex MDL: AN Example from the Opioids Litigation, 89 UMKC L. Rev. 897 (2021).
Matthew S. Melamed, A Theoretical Justification for Special Solicitude: States and the Administrative State, 8 Cardozo Pub. L. Pol’y & Ethics J. 577 (2010).
Matthew S. Melamed, Timeliness and the Non-Existence of Arbitration Agreements, 12 J. Consumer & Com. L. 78 (2009).
Matthew S. Melamed, Towards an Explicit Balancing Inquiry? R.A.V. and Black Through the Lens of Foreign Freedom of Expression Jurisprudence, 59 Hastings L.J. 407 (2007).
Selected to Rising Stars list in Super Lawyers - Northern California, 2015-2018
Federal Bar Association, Member
Bar Association of San Francisco, Member
Public Justice, Member
Oakland Roots and Soul Sports Club, Community Owner