Matt P. Lavine, Esq.

EDUCATION

Duke University School of Law (J.D. ’85)
– Created J.D./M.A. in Constitutional Law, History

Duke University Graduate School (M.A. ’85)
– Master’s Thesis: The Origin of the Bill of Rights

The Johns Hopkins University (B.A. 1981)
– Senior Thesis: Conflicting Ideologies at the Constitutional Convention

The University of Maryland Graduate School
– (Ph.D. candidate 1988-90); dissertation: Roots of the First Amendment

BAR ADMISSIONS

• State of Maryland (1985)
• U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland (1988)
• U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (1992)
• U.S. Supreme Court (1997)
• U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (1998)
• District of Columbia (1993) (inactive)

MARYLAND TRIALS, APPEALS, ADVICE

Litigation: criminal defense, civil rights, malicious prosecution, employment law, Federal employment grievances, wrongful termination, general contracts, serious personal injury, workers’ compensation, partnership fraud, real estate agreements, construction law, condemnation, insurance agreements, tax disputes, zoning appeals.

Transactional: real estate purchase agreements and leases; licensing and non-disclosures; partnerships, franchise and employment contracts.

Client repeatedly rejected the sexual advances of one supervisor. When her direct supervisor accosted her, she ran from office. Later that day, the supervisor declared that she was terminated for failure to meet the company’s standards.

Client hired a lawyer who reportedly filed a claim with the EEOC. After several months passed, the client called her lawyer. There was no response. Eventually, the client discovered that her lawyer had left the practice of law. When we met, I contacted the Commission, but no staff could locate the file.

To that point, the Maryland Court of Appeals had refused to recognize the tort of wrongful termination in Maryland. Relying on a footnote in the most recent opinion on the issue, I filed a lawsuit based on a tort claim not previously recognized in the State. At trial, the jury awarded my client an amount for her lost wages and mental suffering.

On appeal, the Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed. For the first time, Maryland law officially recognized the claim of wrongful termination based on quid pro quo sexual harassment.

The parties used a standard Maryland residential purchase contract for the purchase of an historic Baltimore hotel. Client wrote in the document’s margin, “seller to fix exterior walls, install roof and windows”. The parties initialed the note. About one year later, seller declared that the work was finished. Without inspecting the work, client transferred the agreed amount. Months later, he learned that seller had not completed the installation.

I filed suit in the U.S. District Court. Seller argued that client had waived any legal claim and denied any liability. At trial, we presented evidence of the cost of completing the agreed work. We won a judgment for the amount requested, more than $500,000.00.

Client was a decorated Vietnam War veteran who, after his service, completed a degree in bookkeeping. For his first civilian job, he worked as the comptroller of a small plumbing supply company. After several years, his wife wanted to return to her hometown and start their family. At the owner’s request, Client spent two months commuting from Florida to Maryland.

Finally facing an inability to pay the company’s taxes, the owner filed an insurance claim for theft. The owner told a police detective that Client had stolen funds from the company. Without investigation, the detective obtained an arrest warrant and extradition.

After winning Client’s criminal trial, I filed a Federal civil rights claim against the police department and a malicious prosecution claim against the company. At trial in the U.S. District Court, the judge ruled that the police officer’s work, though substandard, was insufficiently harmful to negate his immunity. The jury found for McNulty against his employer and awarded damages.

Client, a lab technician, claimed a permanent disability following a large chemical spill in the lab. Client had filed a claim in the Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission. The hospital denied the claim as compensable. I presented a complaint for filing in the local circuit court under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The hospital then reversed its position and accepted full liability.

Police deceived an occupant to gain his consent to enter a residence. I argued that deception negated consent. Maryland’s intermediate appellate court agreed and reversed the conviction.

A group of high school students created an “underground” newspaper. When their school’s principal saw a copy, he suspended the students. The County’s student code prohibited the “distribution of unauthorized written materials”. After a hearing, the school district reversed the suspension but refused to remove the provision from its student code. Filing suit in the U.S. District Court, I moved for summary judgment on the issue of the school district’s violation of the First Amendment. The district conceded the issue and produced proof of the removal of the regulation.