ABOUT ME
Meet Matt and VOTE on May 24!
Early Life
For me, all roads have led to Cobb County and Marietta, Georgia is my home. My family moved here from Southern California in 1988, halfway through my kindergarten year. I was enrolled at Mt. Bethel Elementary School and attended there until 3rd grade when my neighborhood was redistricted to attend the newly built Timber Ridge Elementary School, which was closer to my home. After 5th grade I attended Dodgen Middle School through 6th, 7th and 8th grades.
Education & Athletic Prowess
For high school I went to Alan C. Pope where I lettered in four varsity sports as a senior including Cross-Country, Wrestling, Soccer and Track. I was All-State in Track as a junior and in both Cross-Country and Track as a senior. As a team we were Georgia High School '99 Cross Country State Champions. In Wrestling I was a state qualifier as a senior. I graduated from Pope in 2000 and my athletic achievements there earned me a running scholarship to Georgia State University. While at Georgia State, I competed for the Panthers Men's Cross Country and Track & Field teams where I was All-Conference for Track in multiple events. As a senior I was the Atlantic Sun Conference Men's 1500 meter individual Champion and I won the Bruce LaBudde Sportsmanship Award given by the Georgia State University Athletic Department. I graduated from Georgia State in 2005 with a BBA as a double major in Computer Information Systems (CIS) and Marketing. From 2005 to 2008 I attended Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Michigan where I served as an editor of the school's Law Review journal and clerked for Justice Elizabeth A. Weaver of the Michigan Supreme Court in the summer of 2007.
Recent Life & Legal Career
After earning my Juris Doctor (JD), my wife Allison and I married in 2008 in Midland, Michigan. While there I did work for Adoption Option Inc. and served as an adjunct professor for Northwood University teaching both Business Law and Entertainment and Sports Law. We had our first born in 2011 and moved back to Marietta, Georgia in 2012. Our second son was born in 2014 and both boys are enrolled in the Marietta City School district public schools. I have been licensed to practice law in Georgia since 2010 and run a general practice firm taking cases in multiple areas of law including, but not limited to: Business Law, Contracts, Civil Litigation, Family Law, and Landlord/Tenant Law including evictions and eviction defense. My office is located in downtown Marietta and I have litigated in over 20 different counties across the State of Georgia.
Corporate Experience & Information Technology (IT)
Career
My first job after moving back down to Marietta, GA in 2012 was as an IT Analyst for Donnelly Communications Inc. (DCI) in Atlanta, GA. I left DCI in 2015 to enter the realm of self employment doing contract work in both IT and civil litigation. I was eventually hired on fulltime in June 2015 as an Assistant System Administrator for Doehler North America in Cartersville, GA where I was later promoted to System Administrator and In-House Counsel. I left Doehler in June 2016 to run my private law firm fulltime as a sole practitioner.
Certifications
Microsoft Technical Associate
CompTIA Network+
CompTIA Project+
IT as a Hobby
I have always considered art as a form of therapy and have experience in graphite, pen and ink and Prismacolor pencil drawing as well as acrylic and oil painting. However, with the ever changing times my own art talents have evolved into video game development, which some consider "The Ultimate Art Form." I have two games presently available in both the App Store and Google Play:
- Marietta Square
- Rubberband Stan
Why I'm Running - The Lion's Den
The incumbent Judge Robert "Rob" Leonard and I agree on one thing: "The citizens of Cobb County deserve a Judge that is fair, innovative, and experienced." However, Judge Leonard has failed in that regard time and again throughout his tenure on the bench. Instead, we as citizens have endured just another judge obtaining more and more experience at exploiting the system for personal gain at the expense of The People. We as a County have got to do better. Cobb County needs someone experienced at doing what is right even when it is unpopular or may go against his or her self interests. Please read the Why Matt section to learn what is meant by The Lion's Den.
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