Matthew K. Cowherd

Associate

New York
T +1 212.589.4601
F +1 212.589.4201

Overview

Matthew Cowherd focuses his practice on complex commercial and civil litigation. He has substantial experience in litigation involving financial fraud and handles all aspects of commercial litigation at the trial court and appellate stages. Matt’s experience covers crafting general litigation strategy, drafting motions, working on depositions, and handling expert discovery and all other aspects of discovery management.

Matt currently serves as a captain in the United States Army Reserve and is a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps where he works on a variety of criminal and civil issues within the discipline of military law.

Select Experience

  • Member of the BakerHostetler team serving as court-appointed counsel to Irving H. Picard, the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) Trustee for the global liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS), one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history. More than 1,000 lawsuits have been filed by the SIPA Trustee to recover billions of dollars of stolen funds for the benefit of defrauded BLMIS customers. 
  • Successfully represented a leading European bank against claims by a corporation engaged in fraudulent tax shelters.
  • Represented the world's largest bond insurer in federal and state court actions brought by 18 of the world’s largest financial institutions, bondholders and a nationwide class represented by several hedge funds. The entities all challenged the client’s $5 billion restructuring of its structured finance and municipal bond insurance businesses.
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Experience

  • Member of the BakerHostetler team serving as court-appointed counsel to Irving H. Picard, the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) Trustee for the global liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS), one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history. More than 1,000 lawsuits have been filed by the SIPA Trustee to recover billions of dollars of stolen funds for the benefit of defrauded BLMIS customers. 
  • Successfully represented a leading European bank against claims by a corporation engaged in fraudulent tax shelters.
  • Represented the world's largest bond insurer in federal and state court actions brought by 18 of the world’s largest financial institutions, bondholders and a nationwide class represented by several hedge funds. The entities all challenged the client’s $5 billion restructuring of its structured finance and municipal bond insurance businesses.
  • Represented unsecured creditors in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against several hundred financial institutions, including the largest banks in the United States, for, among other things, intentional and constructive fraudulent conveyances, fraud, equitable subordination, equitable disallowance, and aiding and abetting fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.
  • Represented the trustees of a bottling company in connection with its legal malpractice claim against a major national law firm for professional negligence and aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty arising from a massive Ponzi scheme causing more than $500 million in damages to the client’s estate.
  • Represented a publicly traded multinational insurance company in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against some of the largest hedge funds in the country on RICO, conspiracy, racketeering, tortious interference, commercial disparagement, and disparagement claims in connection with their conspiracy to engage in short-selling the client’s stock.
  • Represented a news company in an antitrust action alleging a conspiracy among the leading magazine publishers and distributors in the country to boycott the client and force bankruptcy.
  • Represented an art fund and its affiliates in connection with various claims in connection with the sale of multimillion-dollar works of contemporary art.
  • Won a case on a small trial team in a complex fraud suit in a 24-day trial in New York State Supreme Court for, among other things, fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary duty, and aiding and abetting fraud.

Recognitions and Memberships

Recognitions

  • Immigration Equality Safe Haven Award (2012)

Memberships

  • New York City Bar Association:
    • Committee on Government Ethics and State Affairs
    • Committee on Military Affairs and Justice (former)
      • Legal observer to the 9/11 trials in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
  • Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS)
    • Certified E-Discovery Specialist (CEDS)
  • American Bar Association 
  • New York State Bar Association

Community

  • The Bushwick Starr: Board of Directors
  • NYU Law Moot Court Board, National Immigration Law Competition: Judge

Pro Bono

  • Won seven political asylum cases in U.S. Immigration Court for victims of torture and persecution who have fled from political, religious, ethnic and sexual orientation-based persecution in countries including Sudan, Darfur, Russia, Syria, Honduras and Ghana.
  • Tried divorce cases in Family Court, and prepared visa petitions to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for victims of domestic violence under the Violence Against Women Act.
  • Represented elderly clients against unscrupulous debt collectors in Brooklyn Civil Court cases on behalf of the Legal Aid Society’s Brooklyn Office for the Aging.
  • Advocated on behalf of numerous Holocaust survivors in their applications to recoup pensions and payments from the German government for work performed in ghettos during World War II.
  • Served as Special Assistant Corporation Counsel for the New York City Law Department as a volunteer with the Public Service Program. Conducted and defended numerous depositions in a variety of tort cases against New York City and the NYPD, as well as the NYC Departments of Sanitation, Education, Transportation, Corrections, and Parks and Recreation.
  • Represents an Alabama death row inmate referred through the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners who have been denied fair and just treatment in the legal system.

Prior Positions

  • Judicial Intern for the Honorable Robert W. Sweet, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

Military Service

  • United States Army Reserve: Captain
    • Judge Advocate General’s Corps: Reserve Duty (2013 to present)
    • Army Achievement Medal
    • Army Commendation Medal (x2)

Admissions

  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
  • U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey
  • New York
  • New Jersey
  • District of Columbia

Education

  • LL.M., Litigation Management, Baylor University School of Law, 2021
  • J.D., Yeshiva University Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, 2005
  • M.A., University of Chicago, 2001
  • B.A., Lee University, 1999, cum laude

Blog

In The Blogs

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D.C. Circuit Overturns Parts of the FCC's Expansive Interpretation of the TCPA
By Matthew K. Cowherd
March 29, 2018
On March 16, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a long-anticipated decision that vacated in part, and affirmed in part, portions of the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC’s) ...
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