Office: For Judge of the Twelfth District Court of Appeals
Term Beginning 1/1/2021
Age: 38
Residence: Deerfield Township
Email: matthewbyrneforjudge@gmail.com
Website: https://matthewbyrneforcourtofappeals.com/
Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/matthewbyrneforcourtofappeals/; https://twitter.com/ByrneForJudge
Occupation: Attorney
Education: J.D. from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law / B.A. from Xavier University
Work Experience: Of Counsel, Jackson Lewis P.C. (2016-Present); Associate, Jackson Lewis P.C. (2010-2016); Associate, Taft Stettinius & Hollister, LLP (2007-2010); Summer Associate, Taft Stettinius & Hollister, LLP (Summer 2006); Honors Summer Clerk, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of the General Counsel (Summer 2005); Staff Assistant, The White House, Office of Presidential Personnel (2004)
Family: Married with 3 children
Affiliations: The Federalist Society (former Cincinnati Lawyers Chapter president); St. Margaret of York Catholic Church (Education Commission member and former president; lector; former Finance Commission member); Warren County Republican Party Central Committee (former member); Pregnancy Center East (advisory board member); Warren County Bar Association; Ohio State Bar Association; Warren County Area Progress Council (member); American Enterprise Institute Leadership Network (member); St. Thomas More Society of Greater Cincinnati (former Red Mass committee chair); National Rifle Association (member)
Endorsements: Ohio Right to Life PAC; Right to Life Action Coalition of Ohio PAC; Cincinnati Right to Life PAC; Warren County Right to Life; Buckeye Firearms Association PAC; Warren County Republican Party (primary); Madison County Republican Party (primary); Ohio Citizens PAC; Conservative Republican Leadership Committee; a number endorsements by elected officials
Bar Association Ratings: I am unaware of any bar associations that have completed ratings in this race.
(1) List your judicial experience (courts and years)
I am a first-time judicial candidate.
(2) What about your non-judicial legal experience qualifies you to be a judge?
I practice law at a large national law firm, Jackson Lewis P.C., where I represent businesses ranging from small family-owned companies to large international corporations in both federal and state courts, at both the trial and appeals court levels. My practice involves significant civil matters, including complex wage and hour class actions, discrimination cases, non-compete claims between businesses, tort claims, and much more. My skill in representing clients in these important cases has been recognized by Super Lawyers magazine, which has included me in its “Ohio Rising Stars” attorneys list (an honor given to only 2.5% of Ohio lawyers) every year since 2012.
I am a member of my firm’s Wage and Hour Practice Group and its General Employment Litigation Practice Group. I am also admitted to practice in Kentucky, and maintain an extensive practice there in addition to my Ohio practice. I have also been admitted to appear pro hac vice in court or represented clients in administrative agency actions in more than twelve states.
My practice leaves me uniquely qualified to appeals court work, in that in addition to my appellate litigation experience, the types of cases that I handle in trial courts are heavily focused on research and writing regarding contested legal issues. Appeals courts, unlike trial courts, are solely focused on this type of legal work.
In addition, my career-long involvement in the Federalist Society, including as the president of the Federalist Society’s Cincinnati Lawyers Chapter for five years, demonstrates that I have the right judicial philosophy for the job. In that role I organized numerous substantive, in-depth discussions/debates of important legal issues, and I helped organize a statewide legal conference on a variety of emerging legal issues in Ohio. These events were attended by and featured numerous lawyers, judges, legislators, and even the United States Solicitor General. Simply put, I’ve spent most of my career both thinking about and practicing the skills one needs to be an effective court of appeals judge.
(3) Why are you running for this particular court seat?
I am running for this seat because I care about having highly qualified judges on Ohio’s courts, because I care deeply about limiting judicial overreach on the bench, and because I will enjoy the reading, research, and writing work performed by court of appeals judges. We need two things from court of appeals judges: (1) demonstrated legal excellence, and (2) a judicial philosophy that appreciates and understands that judges are judges, not legislators, and must avoid judicial overreach by deciding cases solely based on the facts and law presented to them. I meet both these criteria. I think it is important that people act on their convictions and serve their community; accordingly, I decided to run for the 12th District Court of Appeals.