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Matthew L. Anderson

Attorney / Partner
Salt Lake City
Licensure: UT

Biography

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Matthew L. Anderson has built a commercial practice focused on real property, representing clients in leasing, development, land-use, and lending transactions, as well as related dispute resolution.

Matt also works on cases involving title, commercial evictions, and conveyances. In handling complex cases, Matt is able to deftly draw upon his broad experience and combine it with the expertise of other Fabian VanCott attorneys skilled in the firm’s other competency areas.

Matt continues to serve as the chair of the firm’s Real Property Practice Group.  Before practicing law, Matt worked as Area Director on Mike Leavitt’s campaign for Governor of Utah and then as Director of Constituent Affairs for the Governor’s Office. He has stayed involved in the political realm by chairing his city’s Planning Commission.

Matt has been active in the Utah State Bar as a past chair of the Real Property Section, the Government Relations Committee, and the Member Benefits Committee. He graduated with honors from the University of Utah and earned his law degree at Columbia, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. After law school, he clerked for the Utah Supreme Court.

Professional History

Chair of Real Property Practice Group, Fabian VanCott

Past Chair, Utah State Bar Real Property Section

Past Co-Chair, Utah State Bar Legislative Relations Committee

Past Chair, Member Benefits Committee, Utah State Bar

Recognized as one of Utah’s “Legal Elite,” Utah Business Magazine

Certified Public Mediator, Columbia Law School Mediation Clinic, New York City

Judicial Clerk, Justice Leonard H. Russon, Supreme Court of Utah, 1997; drafted and researched many opinions for submission and publication

Admitted to Utah State Bar and U.S. District Court, District of Utah, 1996

Summer Clerk, Sakura Kyodo Law Offices, Tokyo, Japan, 1994; assisted Japanese and American lawyers on international and U.S. law-related issues

Director of Constituent Affairs, Utah Governor’s Office, 1992-1993; liaison for the Governor to the public and other governmental entities

Area Director, Mike Leavitt Gubernatorial Campaign, Utah, 1991-1992; first staff member on successful gubernatorial campaign, traveled with candidate across state, responsible for grass-roots campaign in area representing 45 percent of constituency and represented the candidate at a primary election debate and other events

Intern, Committee for Education Funding, Washington D.C., January-June, 1990; Researched, wrote and disseminated reports, legislative tracking and budget analysis; lobbied for federal education funding

Education

Columbia Law School, J.D., 1996

Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, 1996

University of Utah, B. A. Honors, Cum Laude, 1991; English major, Japanese minor

Honors at Entrance Scholarship (four-year full tuition scholarship), Robert H. Hinckley Graduate Scholar (Graduate School Scholarship), Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi

Host and Director, Weekly Campus-Wide Forum, Hinckley Institute of Politics

Community Service

Past Chair of Kaysville Planning Commission,

Past member of Board of Directors and Big Brother, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah

Past member, Governor Leavitt’s Transition Team, Department of Environmental Quality

Volunteer, 2002 Olympic Games, Salt Lake City, Utah

Volunteer Representative, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Tokyo, Japan

Family time, road trips, music, literature, bicycling, hiking, golf, basketball, little league coach, member of National Champion Highland High Rugby Club, and so on.

Publications & Presentations

Author, “International Peacemaking and Peacekeeping Activities in the Post-Cold War World and Its Relationship to Domestic Implementation of International Obligations: A Summary,” Trilateral Perspectives on International Legal Issues

Head Notes Editor, Environmental Law Journal