Hecker Fink LLP

Appellate Litigation; Commercial Litigation; Congressional Investigations; Education; Employment, Discrimination and Sexual Misconduct; Investigations and Crisis Management; Public Interest Litigation

Partner

Joshua Matz is a partner at Hecker Fink LLP.

Joshua works closely with clients as a strategic counselor, trial and appellate litigator, and advisor in responding to governmental investigations. He has successfully litigated cases at every level of the state and federal courts, and has assisted clients in addressing a wide array of state attorney general, congressional, and federal executive branch inquiries. In those matters, Joshua draws on his experience as a law clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy, his service on the House Judiciary Committee, and his expertise on constitutional law (he has co-authored two books with Harvard Law Professor Larry Tribe). Joshua’s clients have included individuals, universities, nonprofits, philanthropies, businesses, judges, cities, states, and congressional committees. In recent years, Joshua’s lawyering has been recognized by Chambers, Benchmark Litigation, Business Insider, Bloomberg Law, The National Law Journal, and The American Lawyer. As one of his clients told Chambers, “People are blown away by how powerful, precise and persuasive he is as an advocate.”

Joshua’s practice features a strong focus on nonprofits, universities, public charities, and private foundations. He has substantial experience advising on compliance, preparedness, and risk management issues, and is often consulted by organizations as they face new or rapidly evolving legal requirements. In the philanthropic sector, Joshua works with some of the nation’s largest advocacy and grantmaking entities—and represents clients in high-stakes litigations and government investigations. He also provides strategic guidance, crisis support, and outside general counsel advice. In the university sector, Joshua has represented Brown University, Columbia University, and New York University in litigation concerning their compliance with anti-discrimination law. He has also advised university clients on Title VI, Title IX, free speech and religious liberty, executive orders and agency action, and governmental investigations.

More broadly, Joshua maintains an active civil litigation practice—and is most often consulted when cases involve high-complexity constitutional or statutory issues, or where clients seek the involvement of appellate-experienced counsel in trial-level strategic planning. He has litigated a diverse set of commercial cases, ranging from contract, fraud, and trade secrets disputes to consumer protection and sex discrimination matters. Joshua has worked with leading businesses to shape national litigation strategies and structure cutting-edge lawsuits. And he has advised both private and public actors on litigating, appealing, and settling substantial cases.

Joshua is particularly experienced in the field of democracy and elections. In 2020, he successfully represented Pennsylvania in defending its certification of the presidential election results. In 2021, Joshua secured the dismissal of a case against a nonprofit—and subsequently secured sanctions—where plaintiffs asserted claims related to the 2020 election. In 2022, he successfully represented the Governors of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in defending their states’ congressional districting maps against challenges at the U.S Supreme Court. And in the 2024 cycle, he represented several nonprofits and states in high-impact election matters. Alongside these litigations, Joshua has represented democracy-focused clients in state and congressional investigations. He has also provided state-by-state compliance advice to democracy-oriented nonprofits, worked with clients to ensure their preparedness for election cycle challenges, and advised clients on questions concerning the administration and certification of elections.

In that same vein, Joshua is frequently retained for constitutional disputes. These matters have encompassed LGBTQ rights, religious liberty, freedom of speech, privacy rights, racial justice, prisoners’ rights, firearm regulation, criminal defendants’ rights, and the separation of powers. While many of these representations have involved litigation—or the filing of amicus briefs—Joshua has also worked on civil rights issues in counseling or confidential settings.

Alongside his litigation experience, Joshua has written for diverse audiences about legal issues. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Harvard Law Review Forum, The University of Chicago Law Review, Just Security, The Daily Journal, The Atlantic and Wired. He has been invited to speak at Harvard Law School, the 92nd Street Y, the National Constitution Center, and Politics & Prose. Joshua also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown Law School, where he co-teaches “Constitutional Litigation and the Executive Branch.” Joshua serves on the Board of Directors for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the American Constitution Society (ACS), as well as the Amicus Committee for Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM).

During his tenure at the firm, Joshua has twice taken leave to serve as counsel to the House Judiciary Committee: from October 2019 through February 2020 for the first impeachment and trial of President Trump, and then again following the events of January 6, 2021 for the second impeachment trial of President Trump. Barry Berke, who served as Chief Impeachment Counsel for the second impeachment trial, praised Joshua as “phenomenal,” telling The National Law Journal that Joshua is “the most brilliant constitutional scholar [he has] ever worked with.” And in his book on the second impeachment (Unthinkable), Representative Jamie Raskin described Joshua as a “proven constitutional lawyer with a golden pen.” Joshua has since been quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, Just Security, and many other publications on questions of impeachment and congressional power.

Joshua received his B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania; his MSt, with distinction, from Oxford University; and his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School. While in law school, Joshua interned at the Public Citizen Litigation Group and the Federal Defenders of New York. He also served as Articles & Book Reviews Chair of the Harvard Law Review. Following law school, Joshua clerked for the Honorable J. Paul Oetken of the Southern District of New York, the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court. 

B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 2008 magna cum laude M.S.T., Oxford University, 2009 with distinction J.D., Harvard University, 2012 magna cum laude