Zach Matthews
Zach Matthews joined McMickle, Kurey & Branch as a partner in 2016. Prior to that time he practiced law with a large midtown Atlanta defense firm, as well as a boutique trucking defense practice in Marietta.
Today, he devotes his entire practice to litigation, specializing in high-loss motor carrier defense, premises liability, and catastrophic negligent security matters. He handles state and federal jury trials as well as appeals to both state and federal courts. He has particular expertise in cases involving inflated medical bills or billing fraud, and has handled a number of landmark cases reported in national media revealing the existence of paid litigation networks. He has been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, 60 Minutes, and the Commercial Carrier Journal in connection with his investigations into those networks.
He has also testified on these issues before the Georgia legislature, and he consults on cases involving similar practices nationwide, including in litigation hotspots like Texas, Louisiana and Florida. He is admitted to practice law in Georgia, Tennessee and Arkansas and has been admitted pro hac vice in other venues.
Mr. Matthews received his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 2006, where he was an Articles Editor for the Tennessee Law Review. A native of Arkansas, he graduated magna cum laude from Hendrix College in 2003.
Mr. Matthews is the Northern At-Large Director on the Board of Directors for the Georgia Defense Lawyer’s Association, and has previously served as the Young Lawyers Chairman and chair of the Substantive Law Committee for Trucking. He is also active in the Defense Research Institute and speaks regularly to its various seminars, as well as to other national organizations.
Outside the practice of law, Mr. Matthews is an outdoorsman and a regular contributor to many national publications, including Gray’s Sporting Journal, The Drake, American Angler, Fly Fisherman, Fly Rod & Reel, and The Flyfish Journal. He hosts a popular outdoor podcast called The Itinerant Angler Podcast, available on iTunes and at www.itinerantangler.com.
Bar Admission:
• Georgia
• Tennessee
• Arkansas
Court Admission:
• U.S. District Court Northern District of Georgia
• U.S. District Court Middle District of Georgia
• U.S. District Court Eastern District of Tennessee
• U.S. District Court Western District of Tennessee
Education:
• Hendrix College, magna cum laude
• University of Tennessee College of Law, J.D., cum laude
Speeches and Published Works:
• “Medical Finance and Lien Doctors – Understanding their Secret Networks” – American Transportation Association Trucking Legal Forum (Washington, D.C.; August 2021).
• “Medical Finance and Lien Doctors – Understanding their Secret Networks” – Federated Insurance Company Liability Seminar (Owatanna, Minnesota; July 2021).
• “Medical Funding and Lien Doctors” – Federated Insurance Company CLE (Atlanta, Georgia; December 2020).
• “Georgia Courts Continue to Highlight the Need to Prove Reasonableness and Necessity of Medical Bills” – Georgia Defense Lawyer, Volume XVI, Issue II (Fall 2020).
• Testimony Before Georgia House Judiciary Committee (March 2020), available online at: https://livestream.com/accounts/25225474/events/8737140/videos/202728340 (timestamp 1h12m).
• “Medical Funding and Lien Doctors” – Protective Insurance Company CLE (Atlanta, Georgia; September 2020).
• “Litigation-Funded Doctors” – Primerus Trucking Group (Phoenix, Arizona; February 2020).
• “Expert Witness Roundtable – Update on Litigation Networks” – Georgia Defense Lawyers Association (Atlanta, Georgia; February 2020).
• “Litigation-Funded Treatment” – Arkansas Trucking Seminar – (Rogers, Arkansas; September 2019).
• “Update on Bias Evidence, Medical Funding Companies, and the Reasonableness of Medical Expenses” – 52nd Annual GDLA Meeting – (Ponte Vedra, Florida; June 2019).
• “The Modern Funding Mill” – Progressive House Counsel and Claims CLE – (Atlanta, Georgia; April 2019).
• “Hot Topics in Damages” – ABA Transportation Megaconference XIV – (New Orleans, Louisiana; March 2019).
• “Litigation-Funded Doctors” – Travelers Insurance CLE – (Alpharetta, Georgia; August 2018).
• “Georgia Civil Practice” – Travelers Insurance CLE – (Charlotte, North Carolina; July 2018).
• “Litigation Funded Doctors” – State Farm In-House Counsel CLE (Atlanta, Georgia; May 2018).
• “Social Media – Privilege and Pitfalls” – DRI Labor and Employment Seminar (Chicago, Illinois; March 2018).
• “Expert Witness Roundtable – Deposing the Treating Physician” – Georgia Defense Lawyer’s Association (Atlanta, Georgia; January 2018).
• “Bodily Injury Claims and Medical Funding – What You Need to Know” – CapSpecialty Insurance CLE (Green Bay, Wisconsin; January 2018).
• DRI Webinar: The Facebook Grenade – (Ethically) Mining Social Media for Maximum Effect (Nationwide, April 2017).
• Ethical Considerations of Social Media Investigation – Tennessee Farm Bureau Attorney Days (Franklin, Tennessee; August 2016).
• “The Facebook Grenade: Getting the Most Out of Social Media” GDLA Annual Meeting CLE presentation – (Amelia Island, Florida; June 2016).
• “The Facebook Grenade: Mining Social Media for Maximum Effect” Georgia Defense Lawyer (Georgia Defense Lawyers Association, Winter 2016).
• “Autonomous Trucking and the Death of Driver Negligence?” For the Defense(Defense Research Institute, December 2015).
• Premises Injury Best Practices: What to Do When a Customer Gets Hurt – Georgia Restaurant Association’s Legal Knowledge Center (May 1, 2015).
• “Autonomous Vehicle Technology: Its Effect on Motor Carriers Today and the Future Regulatory Response” (Defense Research Institute, March 2016).