Matthew M. Clarke

Matthew Clarke is the chair of Kelley | Clarke’s litigation department. He is licensed to practice in California, Texas, and New York. Over his 27 years of practice, Mr. Clarke has obtained more than $190 million in verdicts and settlements as well as helping the firm structure transactions involving real estate valued at more than $2 billion dollars. Mr. Clarke actively tries cases for both defendants as well as plaintiffs in State Courts, Federal Courts, Arbitrators, FINRA, and other regulatory agencies throughout the country.

He has expertise in commercial real estate disputes, securities issues, wrongful termination, lender liability, construction defect,  bad-faith and related insurance disputes, and other complex civil litigation matters. Mr. Clarke was previously a partner at Cappello & Noel, one of the nation’s foremost complex commercial litigation firms and experts in lender liability, in Santa Barbara, California.

Mr. Clarke’s longest trial lasted 11 months and resulted in a multi-million dollar judgment in a construction defect case involving a large multifamily asset in California. He has also tried cases for plaintiffs and defendants involving catastrophic injuries, wrongful death, legal malpractice, accounting malpractice, real estate transactions, investments and intellectual property. This includes verdicts in excess of $40 million against defendants of private equity hedge fund and a wrongful death jury verdict of $16 million in compensatory damages and $2.3 in punitive damages.

Finally, Mr. Clarke has extensive experience advising and counseling businesses, large and small, in the full range of legal issues businesses regularly face. In this regard, the emphasis is always on risk management and cost-effective solutions to difficult problems.

In 2009 and in 2010, Mr. Clarke was selected a “Super Lawyer Rising Star” – recognized as one of the best attorneys under age 40. Mr. Clarke highly rated on the attorney rating website AVVO.

Mr. Clarke has been an active member of the Santa Barbara County Bar Association and served for several years on the Executive Committee.  He was a regular contributor to the Santa Barbara Lawyer Magazine, writing articles on various legal topics.  Mr. Clarke is married and has three growing boys.  Both his wife, Sofia, and he are active in their local community, church, and a number of non-profit organizations.