Matt Douglas went to law school wanting to make a difference, and the Arnold & Porter attorney has done just that, from taking on cases concerning unique environmental issues to cases concerning police violence.
His start in law was unusual for large firm lawyers, Douglas said. Rather than starting in a big firm as a summer associate, he clerked for Judge John-David Sullivan in the 8th Judicial District, where he could see anything and everything that goes on in a courtroom. He ended up in a five-lawyer firm in Fort Collins, immediately starting with trials and depositions. Finally in 1998, Douglas “made the leap” to Arnold & Porter. Now, 25 years after joining, Douglas has a robust practice specializing in product liability and environmental litigation, focusing on energy and pharmaceuticals.
The nature of Douglas’ work in pharmaceutical and environmental cases keeps things challenging but interesting, he said, because he often walks into cases on an issue he has no knowledge of.
“Every case involves some sort of new, complicated scientific issue that I know absolutely nothing about,” Douglas said. “I have to become not a true expert, but enough of an expert to be dangerous.”
Douglas has experience across a variety of high-profile and significant cases, including representing BP in the internal investigation into the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and currently serves as national counsel for AstraZeneca in a large multi-district litigation involving proton-pump inhibitors.
Navigating these difficult scientific topics is much easier for Douglas now with the help of the internet — when he first started he didn’t have that luxury. Now, it’s a “trial by fire” for him including on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill case.
“I showed up knowing nothing about deepwater drilling and exploration and all the acronyms and terminology so I would make myself a list during the day, in all the meetings and discussions I was having, and I would go back to my hotel, get off the computer and just start Googling, all these different things, trying to figure out and better understand,” Douglas said.
His most rewarding cases though, Douglas said, have been through his pro bono work — particularly in his time as trial counsel representing protesters injured by police in the wake of George Floyd’s death in 2020. The 2022 case, Epps et al v. City and County of Denver et al, Douglas said, was the most gratifying work he’s ever done.
“These people came to us having not had their voices heard. They went out to protest and exercise their First Amendment rights and they were attacked by the police,” Douglas said. “Then after that, the city wouldn’t give them the time of day, they did not take the claims seriously until we go to trial.”
Douglas, and his former partner Tim Macdonald, joined the lawsuit after working with the American Civil Liberties Union on several other pro bono cases. The suit challenged the use of “less-lethal weapons” and tear gas used on protesters and alleged failures of city policy, training and supervision of officers. In March 2022, a federal jury ordered the city to pay a total of $14 million to 12 protesters injured by police.
“The verdict supported everything we had been saying and they had been saying for a year and a half,” Douglas said. “Being in the courtroom for that verdict was the most amazing feeling.”
It was during this case Douglas had his “Perry Mason moment,” when an officer claimed that protesters put an improvised explosive device under a police vehicle, and Douglas, during cross-examniation, believed that officer wasn’t telling the truth.
“He was a very, very compelling and charismatic witness and the jury was really hanging on every word of the story; he testified for almost three hours,” Douglas said.
Douglas showed, both through the officer’s initial statement following the protest and through video, that the protester had only walked around the side of the vehicle and poked a screwdriver into the tire. This led to the next police witness stating that the officer didn’t know what he was talking about.
Douglas said his calm and professional approach compared to the aggressive technique from the prosecutors, alongside overwhelming evidence of widespread misconduct, helped build credibility with the judge and jury. Throughout this case and others, Douglas said, he does this by staying true to his personality.
“There are some people who are sort of … pitbulls or the smooth, sort of salesman like lawyers and I’m neither of those,” Douglas said. “I am relatively sort of mild-mannered, friendly, nice, chatty person and so that comes out at the deposition.”
Douglas said he’s thankful that Arnold & Porter has a relationship with the ACLU, to be able to make a difference.
“Having the opportunity to get pro bono cases like that makes the practice of law better, more interesting and more rewarding,” Douglas said. “To be able to have my regular practice and have an opportunity to do pro bono cases like this is really kind of special.”