Matthew C. Zorn

Matt focuses on complex commercial litigation, representing clients in IP, contract, and regulatory litigation in federal and state trial and appellate courts.

He has significant expertise in federal jurisdiction and procedure. Matt is at home digging out case-changing evidence, crafting legal strategies under arcane statutes and procedures, eliciting critical deposition or trial testimony, and arguing on his feet to trial courts, appellate courts, and arbitrators.

Matt is also recognized as an authority on issues relating to the federal Controlled Substance Act and cannabis and psychedelics regulation. Matt is nationally ranked as Band One in Psychedelics Law by Chambers USA and was a previous member of the Law360 Cannabis Editorial Advisory Board. Matt is an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center, teaching a course on cannabis and psychedelics law.

Matt has received national recognition for his work in IP litigation, commercial litigation, and controlled substances litigation. The American Lawyer previously named Matt a finalist for Young Lawyer of the Year (Litigation), and the American Inns of Court named him a 2020 Pegasus Scholar. Best Lawyers in America recognized Matt in Commercial Litigation, and Thomson Reuters’ Super Lawyers recognizes him as a “Texas Rising Star” in IP Litigation, Cannabis Law, and Administrative Law.

Before joining the firm, Matt was a judicial clerk to the Hon. Rodney Gilstrap, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas, spending hundreds of hours in court helping manage one of the busiest trial dockets in the country. He was also a litigator with Paul Weiss in New York City.

Read More

Representative Experience

• Global Tubing v. Tenaris Coiled Tubes. Obtained a complete defense victory in connection with seeking a declaratory judgment that Global Tubing’s quench-and-tempered coiled tubing products – key to its business – did not infringe three Tenaris Over the six-year dispute, we defeated several motions to dismiss, obtained a discovery ruling that used the crime-fraud exception to order Tenaris to produce attorney-client communications related to a key prior art document, and an opinion sanctioning Tenaris for violating the protective in prosecuting follow-on patents. The district court granted our client’s motion for summary judgment and found all the patents unenforceable due to Tenaris’s fraud on the Patent Office.
• FTC v. Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. Defended Welsh Carson against FTC suit alleging anticompetitive practices against a private equity firm who allegedly engaged in “roll-up” transactions to monopolize anesthesia services in Secured dismissal of all claims against Welsh Carson in a landmark case establishing that a private equity investor in long-ago completed transactions cannot be sued for an “ongoing” violation of the antitrust laws. Also won dismissal of all claims against our client in the follow-on civil class action on statute of limitations grounds (Elec. Med. Trust & Plumber Local Union 68 v. USAP).
• LiquidPower Specialty Products, Inc. v. Baker Hughes Company. Defended Baker Hughes in patent infringement case. We asserted antitrust counterclaims based on Walker Process fraud and stayed the case while Baker Hughes challenged LiquidPower patents through inter partes After the Patent Office found all asserted patent claims to be unpatentable, we successfully lifted the stay on antitrust counterclaims. After further discovery, expert reports, and dispositive motions on Baker Hughes’ antitrust claims, the parties settled on confidential terms.
• Zorn v. HHS. Lawsuit seeking to compel production of HHS recommendation relating to medicinal value of cannabis under FOIA. Two months after filing an early motion for summary judgment, agency released document in full. Lawsuit featured on front page of New York.
• Legacy Separators v. Halliburton. Represented plaintiff in pursuing patent/trade-secret claims over oilfield gas separator operations. In the last Houston jury trial before the Covid-19 lockdown, we settled with one defendant and defeated Halliburton’s defenses and counterclaims. The jury hung on whether Halliburton systems The case settled before the second trial.
• Aggarwal DEA (argued). Part of team in petition for review proceeding in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals seeking order setting aside DEA decision denying petition to reschedule psilocybin. One week after oral argument, the court granted the petition for review and remanded rescheduling petition for reconsideration.
• Scheduling 4-OH-DiPT, 5-MeO-AMT, 5-MeO-MiPT, 5-MeO-DET, and DiPT. Lead counsel for two startup companies researching psychedelic medicine in formal rulemaking proceeding regarding proposed scheduling of five tryptamine substances into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (87 FR 2376 (2022)). One month before evidentiary hearing and following exchange of witness statements, rule withdrawn by the Administrator. (87 FR 45076 (2022)).
• Crown Distributing v. Texas DSHS. Lead litigator in state court action asserting state constitutional and administrative law claims against state agency regarding bans on smokable hemp Obtained temporary injunction forestalling enforcement of ban until final trial on the merits, which was partially upheld on appeal. Obtained trial court judgment that statutory directive and resulting administrative rule were invalid, prevailing on the constitutional claim, after a bench trial on the merits. Trial court ruling partially upheld on direct appeal to Texas Supreme Court, with decision overturning ban on sale and distribution intact.
• AIMS v. DEA (argued). Part of team in suit in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals seeking order setting aside DEA decision that it lacks authority to accommodate waiver or exception to permit use of controlled substances in accordance with state and federal right to try. Prominent amici include ten states, the Goldwater Institute, the Cato Institute, and the ACLU of Washington.
• Confidential international arbitration. Part of plaintiffs’ team in a contract dispute with a large patent aggregator. Conducted cross- examination during the final hearing in New York City, as well as crafted key aspects of the team’s overall Award is confidential.
• MDSP v. Garmin Int’l Inc. Represented defendant in a patent infringement case against non-practicing entity. MDSP noticed dismissal after filing of motion to dismiss.
• Silver State Inc. v. Garmin Int’l, Inc. Part of defense trial team for a GPS company against a non-practicing entity. The case resulted in jury verdict invalidating all four patents-in-suit.
• Bluestone Innovations LLC v. Nichia Corp. Assisted in defending Nichia in action brought by non-practicing entity concerning LED The case resulted in dismissal with prejudice without payment.
• Invidi Tech. Corp. v. Visible World Inc. Part of defense team that represented Visible World in competitor suit concerning patents covering targeted advertising technology.

Presentations & Publications

• “Cartels 2024 – Trends and Developments,” Chambers and Partners Practice Guides (co-author)
• “The Controlled Substances Act: An International Private Delegation That Goes Too Far,” 100 Wash. U. L. Rev. (co-author)
• “Demystifying the Crime-Fraud Exception,” The Advocate, Winter 2022 (co-author)
• “Sue ‘n the DEA: Breaking the 50-year NIDA Monopoly” South by Southwest® Conference (SXSW), March 15, 2022, (co-presenter)
• “Pills to Pot? An Investigation of the Evidence for Cannabinoids as an Opioid Substitute,” Workers’ Compensation Program, Arizona State Bar, September 2020 (panelist)
• “Federal Law & Policy Update,” Business Issues in Cannabis & Industrial Hemp Conference, February 2020 (co-presenter)
• “Legal and Scientific Issues in Increasing Medical Cannabis Research,” Texas Marijuana Policy Conference, August 2019 (co-presenter)
• “State Anti-SLAPP In Federal Court: An Update From Texas,” Law 360, November 1, 2018 (co-author)
• “Questions Raised By Law That Use Copyrighted Standards,” Law360, August 2, 2018 (co-author)
• “An Uptick in Customer-Suit Exception After TC Heartland?” Law360, November 9, 2017 (author)