Matt has extensive experience in a variety of legal issues impacting members of food, agribusiness and other industries.
His practice has included advising agribusiness clients on matters such utility and plant patents, trademarks, plant variety protection, herbicide application regulations, crop seed bag labeling, crop performance, as well as a variety of other legal issues involving crops ranging from corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton to alfalfa, canola, milo, turf grass, kidney beans, sesame seeds, green peppers and lentils. Many of these matters involved alleged infringement and/or seed piracy.
Additionally, Matt has defended food and consumer product manufacturers faced with class action cases based upon product labeling. These putative class claims have focused on “All Natural” and “Made in America” language and often involve claims arising under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act (MMPA).
Matt also has unique experience in toxic tort (vinyl chloride monomer, asbestos and benzene) individual and class action cases, including the ongoing defense of a toxic tort medical monitoring class action. He has defended consumer fraud class actions including litigating a labeling case that involved a nationwide class certification matter overturned by the Eighth Circuit that involved Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) issues.
For food and agricultural industry members, Matt has:
- Participated in pre-litigation claims, jury and bench trials relating to private seed companies and a public university’s assertion of utility and plant U.S. patent and Plant Variety Protection rights.
- Defended crop seed performance claims in multiple states and jurisdictions for a major agricultural technology company.
- Represented a leading precision agriculture company and worked with satellite imagery to track crop growth.
- Represented a biodiesel refinery client on issues related to soybean oil futures and trade rules.
In addition, Matt routinely defends agribusiness industry members and clients in other industries relating to state and federal court matters involving alleged exposure to carcinogenic materials, medical monitoring, product liability, maritime explosion and other personal injury matters.
Matt has appeared on behalf of clients in state and federal courts — both civil and bankruptcy — across the United States. He has also coordinated with federal law enforcement (FBI and IRS) authorities and has litigated employee embezzlement matters.
Furthermore, Matt has led the defense of several putative nationwide class action matters in state and federal courts, including multidistrict litigation (MDL) experience. He has handled the prosecution and defense of a variety of commercial and contractual disputes, including distributor, licensing and construction disputes. Most recently, Matt has provided advice on regulatory, IP, privacy and exposure/risk issues associated with the emerging field of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS).