Matthew Mitzner trained as a trial lawyer. His analytic and strategic strengths built his practice. Whether it’s pre-suit guidance or best-positioning for future litigation, he handles the issues and next steps uniquely, creatively.
Mitzner has focused his practice upon prosecuting and sometimes defending against unfounded claims of fraud in many different forms—some examples:
a client’s stolen trade secrets;
tortious interference with a client’s work or business;
purposefully harming someone’s reputation; and
companies and employees conspiring or breaching their duties, fiduciary or otherwise.
Many times, these claims arise from an allegedly breached contract. The client is usually and understandably worried about what to do, how to respond.
Mitzner began his practice at Thompson & Knight, formerly an international law firm based in Dallas. For the first of his more than eight years at that firm, the economy was in recession and then “recovery,” necessitating lawsuits to protect commercial real estate and to compensate for breached contracts. Quickly demonstrating a natural proclivity in the courtroom, he encountered unique opportunities, building and trying complex civil cases early in his career. He then shifted his focus to resolving highly complex issues in any case presented, but focusing within the employment and fiduciary practices.
Mitzner has represented businesses and employers across a variety of industries—e.g., private-equity funds, energy firms, healthcare providers, lenders, commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) special servicers, and high-net-worth individuals and small-business owners. While many of those matters were local, his professional experience spans state and federal courts across the country, as well as tribunals for the American Arbitration Association (AAA).
Mitzner strongly supports civil jury trials and the rule of law. To at least contribute to maintaining these irreplaceable protections of our rights, he has focused his pro-bono time helping those who desperately need—or have been denied—due process of law.
Mitzner seeks to provide otherwise invaluable guidance to help his clients navigate their legal difficulties with both discretion and well-educated confidence.
Recent Honors
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Nominated for Texan of the Year, Dallas Morning News, 12.12.17 Editorial
EDUCATION
The University of Texas School of Law
Juris Doctorate, with honors
Articles Editor, The Review of Litigation
Board of Advocates
The University of Oklahoma
B.A., Political Science, summa cum laude
Beta Theta Pi, Gamma Phi Chapter
Phi Beta Kappa & Phi Kappa Phi
Brasenose College, Oxford University
Law, Justice, & Mercy, by Chief Judge Robert Henry for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
Boren Scholar
BAR ADMISSIONS
Supreme Court of the United States
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Texas
U.S. Ct. of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
U.S. Dist. Ct., Eastern Dist. Texas
U.S. Dist. Ct., Northern Dist. Texas
U.S. Dist. Ct., Southern Dist. Texas
U.S. Dist. Ct., Western Dist. Texas
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Oklahoma
U.S. Ct. of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
U.S. Dist. Ct., Eastern Dist. Oklahoma
U.S. Dist. Ct., Northern Dist. Oklahoma
U.S. Dist. Ct., Western Dist. Oklahoma
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U.S. Ct. of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
U.S. Dist. Ct., District of Colorado
Community Memberships
Highland Park United Methodist Church
DFW Beta Theta Pi Alumni Group
Founder, Lawyers for America (501(c)(3))
Former Board Member, Dallas Heritage Village
BAR ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIPS
American Bar Association
Federal Bar Association
State Bar of Texas
Dallas Bar Association
Oklahoma Bar Association
EXEMPLATIVE MATTERS
Employment & Business FRAUD
Obtained award for ex parte seizure by the U.S. Marshal of stolen trade-secret & proprietary material—one of the first two such orders under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) ever granted in the United States
Civ-17-931-C (W.D. Okla. Aug. 31, 2017)
Prosecuting Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA) Motion to Dismiss (Anti-SLAPP) claims asserted for oil-and-gas service provider's alleged misappropriation of trade secrets, competition violating noncompetes and non-solicits, and tortious interference
DC-17-14239 (162nd Jud. Dist., Dallas Cty. Dist. Ct.)
05-18-00769-CV (Tex. App.—Dallas)
Prosecuted bribery scheme used to obtain an over one-billion-dollar drilling contract and helped defend against wide-ranging tort and contract claims (AAA Arb.)
4:18-CV-2246 (S.D. Tex. 2018)
Secured settlement for multi-billion-dollar company, whose high-level executive was accused of repeated sexual misconduct over several months related to a subordinate’s wife, deeply investigating [what would be exposed as] her [false] accusations
Prosecuted energy company’s former employees and publicly-traded company’s conspiring, high-level executive, for fraudulent kickback scheme, securing recovery
DC-15-11683 (68th Jud. Dist., Dallas Cty. Dist. Ct.)
Prosecuted fraud in wide-ranging business dispute in healthcare-services industry, securing settlement recovery from contractor-servicer
DC-17-251360-11 (17th Jud. Dist., Tarrant Cty. Dist. Ct.)
COMMERCIAL ASSETS
Obtained—and overcame appeal of—jury verdict awarding lender all default interest, attorneys’ fees, and costs incurred where borrower claimed wide-ranging lender misconduct constituting fraud and gross negligence, asking the jury for multiple millions in punitives
2015 WL 12036828 (Fort Bend Cty. Dist. Ct. Sept. 21, 2015), granting dism’l, 2017 WL 1103548 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] Mar. 23, 2017)
Prosecuting three publicly traded companies used as alter egos to avoid paying multi-million-dollar judgment; defeating fraudulent anticipatory-strike filing; and obtaining Fifth Circuit’s reversal of trial court’s partial grant of motion to dismiss
2015 WL 13308898 (N.D. Tex.), rev’d, 847 F.3d 302 (5th Cir. 2017), cert. denied, 138 S.Ct. 270
2016 WL 6464485 (N.D. Tex.)
Secured settlement in action defending against mandatory injunction sought against hospital to build $5 million freestanding-emergency-department at a location under ground lease in Frisco, Texas
15-07752-393 (393rd Jud. Dist., Denton Cty. Dist. Ct.)
Prosecuted to recovery multiple guarantees of commercial leases for tenancy and build-outs of valuable commercial offices
Obtained receiverships for several funds/special servicers in actions concerning compromised collateral of commercial mortgage-backed securities (“CMBS”) trusts
PROTECTING CAPITAL
Secured dismissal of physician group’s fiduciary and fraud claims against hospital system for alleged discovery of tens-of-millions in business losses spanning decades
DC-14-11879 (192nd Jud. Dist., Dallas Cty. Dist. Ct.)
After intervening and establishing plaintiff’s wrongful-injunction liability over client's secured property, obtained opponent’s walk-away from injunction-action for valuable collateral
DC-16-3106 (134th Jud. Dist., Dallas Cty. Dist. Ct.)
Obtained—and defeated appeal of—unanimous jury verdict for multi-million-dollar damages in commercial dispute concerning international, multi-year telephonic-services contract
427 S.W.3d 511 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2014, pet. denied)
Protected lender’s security for multi-million-dollar loan balance in bankruptcy-adversary proceeding asserting lender-liability claims
534 B.R. 35 (Bankr. D.N.M. 2015)
Recovered settlement in anticipatory-strike suit against a national insurer for wrongful charges
DC-13-14957-B (44th Jud. Dist., Dallas Cty. Dist. Ct.)
Secured individual investor’s recovery in securities transaction for seller’s fraud
DC-13-14973 (162nd Jud. Dist., Dallas Cty. Dist. Ct.)
Obtained jury verdict and recovered award in negligence dispute concerning damaged personal property
DC-17-263071-12 (17th Jud. Dist., Tarrant Cty. Dist. Ct.)
We intend to handle each of our cases with equal persistence, but as each case is unique, none of the results reported above promise or suggest particular future performance.
