About Matthew Hersh

Matthew Hersh is a skilled litigator with extensive experience representing copyright owners, telecommunications companies, and other corporate entities at both the trial and appellate level.

Matt’s copyright practice involves nearly a decade working on behalf of copyright owners with one of the nation’s premiere intellectual property litigation firms. He helped to formulate the music industry’s initial strategy for combating copyright infringement online, pursuing music pirates at home and abroad in order to clear the way for licensed online music services to get off the ground. Matt also managed the implementation of a groundbreaking settlement with a website operator that resulted in the first-ever copyright “filter” in a commercial peer-to-peer music network, led successful litigation on behalf of a small family-run carpet designer and manufacturer against a major Las Vegas casino for the unauthorized use of a carpet design, and litigated rate-making proceedings on behalf of major record labels before the Copyright Royalty Board.

Matt has also developed a substantial copyright appellate litigation practice over his career, He was a member of the briefing team for MGM v. Grokster, the Supreme Court case that established the liability of peer-to-peer file-sharing companies for infringing content. Since joining Mestaz Law, Matt has also continued to brief copyright issues at several different appellate levels. In 2022, Matt submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in Warhol v. Goldsmith, a case that clarified longstanding ambiguities in the “transformative use” test of the fair use doctrine. Matt also represents a client in a copyright appeal in the Second Circuit involving important fair use and implied licensing issues and submitted an amicus brief to the Ninth Circuit on behalf of a photographer in a high-profile copyright appeal against a prominent Los Angeles tattoo artist.

In addition to the Warhol and Grokster copyright cases, Matt was a member of the Supreme Court briefing team in Rumsfeld v. Padilla, one of the first legal challenges to post-9/11 military detention policies to reach the Court. He also contributed amicus briefs in Padilla v. Kentucky, a case establishing the right of non-citizens to effective representation at the pleading stage; Dickerson v. United States, a case reaffirming the Miranda rule; Christopher v. Harbury, a case involving alleged human rights abuses overseas; and United States v. Arvizu, a case involving search and seizure rights. Matt’s other appellate work has included the successful representation of General Dynamics in the appeal of a multi-billion dollar judgment in a government contract case, the successful representation of the American Bar Association in defense of the constitutionality of lawyer trust accounts, and the successful representation of WorldCom in defense of the discharge of claims in bankruptcy.

Like Daniel, Matt resigned his BigLaw position in order to provide legal services in a more diverse array of settings. In addition to his collaboration with Mestaz Law, Matt writes a daily column on developments in intellectual property law for Intellectual Property Law Daily, a trade journal put out by the prestigious legal publisher Wolters Kluwer. Matt has also maintained an extensive public interest and pro bono practice throughout his legal career, including the successful reversal of a murder conviction of an indigent woman in South Carolina, the successful representation of a young woman victimized by a sexual assault in the District of Columbia, and the successful representation of a Tucson-area animal shelter against a frivolous contract breach lawsuit. Matt speaks Spanish fluently, and has lived and worked for many years in Latin America.