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Matthew advises public and private companies on the transactions that shape their growth — mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, leveraged and cross-border deals, and corporate finance. He also serves as outside general corporate counsel to companies that need a steady hand on the everyday legal questions between the big transactions.
About
Matthew is a member of Manning Fulton’s Corporate Practice Group. He works with founders, owners, and management teams across the transaction lifecycle — from formation and financing to acquisitions, sales, and the day-to-day decisions in between. Much of his practice is spent as outside general counsel to growing companies, where he has learned that good corporate advice is as much about understanding the business as it is about knowing the law.
A significant part of Matthew’s practice is guiding small business owners through the sale of the company they built. For many, an acquisition offer is the first time they have worked with a transactional lawyer, and a successful closing can be the most significant financial event of their lives. That work rewards patience as much as legal skill. Matthew takes the time to educate first-time sellers, walk them through each step in plain language, and counsel them on the many questions, financial, personal, and practical, that reach beyond the strictly legal.
Matthew grew up in Lawrenceville, Georgia, attended a public state university, and earned his law degree at Harvard. He began his career in the corporate group at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in New York, where he spent roughly three and a half years, working alongside multinational clients on complex domestic and cross-border transactions. He joined Manning Fulton in 2023, glad to be back in the South after years in the Northeast.
Matthew’s hero growing up was his grandfather, an immigrant who came to the United States at sixteen and built a series of small businesses over his lifetime. His willingness to bet on himself and do the work left a lasting impression. Matthew brings that same appreciation for risk and self-reliance to his work with North Carolina’s small business owners. He sees them as the driving force behind the American economy and considers it a privilege to stand alongside them.
Outside the office, Matthew reads history and follows U.S. politics and foreign policy, cooks when he gets the chance, and spends as much time as he can outdoors with his wife, Monique, son, Hugo, and poodle, Frances.
Credentials
Education:
- J.D., Harvard Law School, 2017
- B.B.A., Finance, Georgia State University, summa cum laude, 2014
Admitted to Practice:
- North Carolina – 2024
- New York – 2019
Professional Activities:
- Recognized by Super Lawyers – Rising Star Mergers & Acquisitions, Business & Corporate, Securities & Corporate Finance (2025-2026)
- Listed in Business North Carolina Magazine’s Legal Elite in the Young Guns category (2025-2026)
- Recognized by Best Lawyers: One’s to Watch – Business Organizations, Corporate Law and Mergers and Acquisitions Law (2026-2027)
- North Carolina Economic Development Association – Member
- Emerging Executives Committee Member (2024 – Present)
- Legislative Committee Member (2024 – Present)
- North Carolina Bar Association – Member
- Durham County Bar Association / 16th Judicial District – Member
- Strategic Planning Committee Member (2024 – Present)
- Communications Committee Member (2024 – Present)
- Durham Citizens Advisory Committee – Member (August 2023 – June 2026)
- Durham Chamber of Commerce – Ambassador (2023 – Present)
- Harvard Club of the Research Triangle – Member (2023 – Present)
- Foreign Policy for America – NextGen Fellow (2023 – Present)
Prior Experience/Clerkships:
- Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A – Senior Staff Attorney (2022-2023)
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP – Associate (2017 – 2021)
Representative Transactions
- Represented NC-based pork provider in establishment of joint venture
- Represented Triangle-based construction company in $42 million sale to private equity fund
- Represented public transnational power generation and infrastructure company in its “take private” sale to global infrastructure private equity company – $961 million
- Represented one of the world’s largest tanker companies in “merger of equals” – combined company enterprise value of approximately $2 billion
- Represented Fortune 500 technology company in late-stage investment in life sciences company – $1 billion
- Represented world’s largest bedding manufacturer with its purchase of assets in Section 363 bankruptcy sale – $24 million
- Represented private equity sponsor in sale of interests in financial technology company – $130 million
- Represented food processing, packaging and material handling company in bolt-on acquisition of process automation company – $175 million
- Represented European-based data intelligence company in Series E financing – $112.5 million
- Represented venture arm of Fortune 500 company in connection with various preferred investments in early-stage companies
- Represented special committee to the board of satellite communications company in connection with proposed corporate integration