Matthew James Stanford

Matt came to Osborn Maledon with extensive experience working within the Arizona judiciary. After graduating from Berkeley Law in 2017, he served three consecutive terms as a judicial law clerk—two years with U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton, a year with Circuit Judge Michael Daly Hawkins, and finally, a year with Chief Justice Robert M. Brutinel. Matt’s years of service as a clerk equipped him with a unique perspective of the inner workings of the judicial process at all three levels. They also engrained him with a civic-minded approach to the practice of law that informs his decisions as both counselor and colleague.

Matt frequently contributes his opinions and research to various legal blogs, journals, and other publications. He is a regular contributor to SCOCAblog, a joint project of Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center, where Matt serves as a senior research fellow, and the Hastings Law Journal. His work has also appeared on Business Insider and The Recorder. Though Matt’s writings have spanned several topics over the years, a recurring theme and personal passion of his has been institutional integrity and the separation of governmental power.

Prior to law school, Matt spent time working at a California civil rights law firm, where he served as the firm’s litigation director in addition to managing its marketing efforts. During law school, Matt dedicated much of his time to developing his crafts as a researcher, writer, and advocate. He served on the editorial boards of two of the school’s legal journals and was a research assistant for two of the nation’s premier legal scholars in the fields of civil procedure and constitutional law. He also served as a judicial extern for U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick III of the Northern District of California, as a senior analyst for a nonprofit focused on state and county correctional reform, and as a law clerk for an international law firm in San Francisco.