Matthew Esworthy

Practice Areas

For more than two decades, businesses and individuals have turned to Mr. Esworthy for guidance and representation in high-stakes litigation. He has achieved notable results for clients in a variety of litigation matters, including complex commercial disputes, business litigation, employment and regulatory matters, fiduciary litigation, white-collar defense, trusts and estates litigation and cybersecurity.

Career

Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Esworthy served the Maryland Court of Special Appeals as judicial clerk to Hon. Joseph F. Murphy, Jr.

Professional Memberships

Mr. Esworthy has been an active member of state and national bar associations, alumni groups, and civic organizations. A recognized authority on cybersecurity law, he serves as Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section Cyber Crime Committee and Co-Chair of the Maryland State Bar Association’s Cybersecurity Task Force. He was also recently asked to serve again on the ABA Cybersecurity Legal Task Force. He is past president of the alumni association for Pennsylvania State University’s Dickinson School of Law and recently appointed to serve again on the Penn State Alumni Council Executive Board. Dedicated to the Greater Baltimore community, Matt has also served as a board member of Civic Works and the Clarence H. “Du” Burns Memorial Fund. Mr. Esworthy also serves the legal community as an adjunct law professor at University of Baltimore School of Law, where he teaches several courses focusing on litigation and advocacy. Mr. Esworthy also serves as an adjunct professor at University of Maryland Baltimore County and Stevenson University in the areas of legal ethics and white-collar crime.

Publications

Panelist/Speaker, American Bar Association’s (ABA) UN Convention on Cybercrime Webinar – February 13, 2025

Presenter, Maryland State Bar Association – MSBA "Hot Tips in Workers’ Compensation -Data Breach 101.” MSBA event's page here: https://lnkd.in/d5wCqwHC – May 9, 2024

Quoted, The Maryland Daily Record, “Does your law firm need a data quality specialist? – https://thedailyrecord.com/2023/08/09/does-your-law-firm-need-a-data-quality-specialist/ - August 9, 2023

Speaker, ABA The JustPod Podcast, Geofence Warrants and Their Use by Law Enforcement – https://adcg-on-privacy-and cybersecurity.simplecast.com/episodes/83-geofence-warrants-and-january-6-constitutional-and-privacy-issues?t=0m0s – December 16, 2022

Presenter, 2022 Advanced Business Law Institute: Update on Cyber Crime and Regulation of Personal Identifiable Information — April 2022

Presenter, MSBA Solo & Small Firm Summit, Run your Practice Cybersecurity Basics – What Solo and Small Firms Need to Know – March 3, 2022

Speaker, ABA The JustPod Podcast, Cybercrime Law: A Call for Uniformity – October 2021

Speaker, ABA The JustPod Podcast, January 6th: Cybercrimes- February 2021

Quoted in, “Coronavirus may trigger ‘force majeure’ clauses in contacts” – The Daily Record – https://thedailyrecord.com/welcome-ad/?retUrl=/2020/03/13/coronavirus-force-majeure-contracts/ – April 14, 2020

Presenter, Maryland GFOA Fall Conference: Cybercrime Ransomware – October 2019

Quoted in, “Why NY’s Criminal Discovery Reforms Aren’t a Boon to E-Discovery” – Law.com – July 31, 2019

Presenter, Bar Association of Baltimore City’s Business Litigation Committee: ESI Roundtable – May 2019

Quoted in, “Local Attorneys Wait to see Full Scope of Pugh’s Legal Woes” – the Maryland Daily Record – April 2019

Presenter, “CFMA Maryland Chapter Seminar: White Collar Crime and Fraud” – February 2019

Quoted in, “Sensitive Personal and Business Data Make Law Firms Attractive to Hackers” – the Maryland Daily Record – February 2019

Quoted in, “How Lawyers Can Help Business Before – and After – Disasters Strike” – the Maryland Daily Record – December 2018

Presenter, Iowa State Bar’s 2018 eCommerce and Intellectual Property Law Seminar on The CLOUD Act – November 2018

Co-Host, 2018 Penn State Alumni Association Volunteer Awards Dinner – October 2018

Quoted in, “Electronic Data Stored Abroad Now Subject to Federal Seizure” – American Bar Association – August 2018

Featured In, “Matthew A.S. Esworthy: Bite-sized cybersecurity” – The Daily Record – April 2018

Panelist, CFMA Seminar on Construction & Cyber Resiliency: What You Need to Know & What You Need to Do – at RCM&D in Towson, Maryland – March 1, 2018

Quoted, “ABA Cybersecurity Checklist to Help Businesses Vet outside Vendors” – The Daily Record – June 2017

Featured In, “Bowie & Jensen Expands Cybersecurity Practice with New Partner” – The Daily Record – May 2017

Quoted, “Inaccurate leads from IP addresses prompt police to serve warrants on innocent people,” ABA Journal – May 2017

Authored, “Putting Data Security to the Test,” The Daily Record – April 2016

Co-authored, “Cases Without Borders – the Challenge of International Cybercrime Investigations,” ABA Criminal Justice Magazine – Winter 2016

Co-authored, “Will the Court Define ‘Actual Damages’ in the OPM Cyber-Attack Lawsuit?” ABA Litigation Section’s Criminal Litigation Newsletter – September 2015

Quoted, “Ashley Madison Hack May Yield a Crop of Reluctant Plaintiffs,” Progressivelawpractice.com – September 2015

Quoted, “AFGE lawsuit seeks relief for victims of OPM data breach,” Federal News Radio – June 2015

Quoted, “Cybercrime,” Washington Lawyer – May 2015

Quoted, “Law firms victims of computer hackers” (translation from Spanish), DirigentesDigital.com – April 2015

Quoted, “Should Businesses Negotiate to Recover Stolen Data?” Legal Tech News – April 2015

Quoted, “$10 Million Settlement in Target Data Breach Gets Preliminary Approval,” The New York Times – March 2015

Quoted, “Targeting Law Firms,” The Daily Record – March 2015

Panelist, “Cybercrimes: The Perfect Crime and Local Governments are Not Immune,” Annual International Municipal Lawyers Association Conference – September 2014

Speaker, Penn State Dickinson School of Law Class of 2014 Commencement – May 2014

Moderator and panelist, “Cyber Attacks: The Perfect Crime? A Lawyer’s Guide to the World of Cybersecurity,” ABA’s Criminal Justice Section program – February 2014

Co-authored, “Glitches Within the CFAA’s ‘Exceeds Authorized Access’ Language,” ABA Litigation Section’s Criminal Litigation Newsletter – October 2013

Panelist, “Why Cybercrime Has Become the Perfect Crime,” Government Security Conference & Expo – May 2013

Panelist, “Anatomy of a Trial,” ABA’s Litigation Section Annual Conference – May 2013

Co-authored, “Cybercrime Task Force” chapter, ABA’s The State of Criminal Justice –2012 and 2013 editions

Authored, “Pitfalls of Predictive Coding,” Federal Litigation Section of the Federal Bar Association’s SideBAR – January 2013

Co-authored, “E-Discovery Task Force” chapter, ABA’s The State of Criminal Justice – 2012

Moderator, “Cost Effective Approaches to Dealing with ESI” panel discussion, ABA Criminal Justice Section’s Spring Conference – Spring 2012

Co-authored, “The ESI Tsunami: A Comprehensive Discussion about Electronically Stored Information in Government Investigations and Criminal Cases,” ABA’s Criminal Justice Magazine – Spring 2012

Speaker, “Rule of Law in Cyber Conflict & Cybercrime,” Government Security Conference & Expo – April 2012

Faculty member, “The Digital Age Meets the Constitution: Implications of United States v. Jones,” Bloomberg BNA webinar – February 2012

Moderator, “A Comprehensive View of Where Cyber Crime is Heading in 2012” panel discussion, ABA Criminal Justice Section Annual Meeting – February 2012

Moderator, “The ESI Tsunami: A Comprehensive Discussion about Electronically Stored Information in Criminal Cases,” ABA Criminal Justice Section’s Second Annual Prescription for Criminal Justice Forensics – June 2011

Experience

Mr. Esworthy achieved favorable results in a number of high-profile civil cases, including:

* Defended a large international auto manufacture in Federal and State Courts;

* Defended a large multi-state RV business in Federal and State Courts;

* Recouped losses on behalf of a large Baltimore business who experienced significant financial losses in excess of one-million dollars as a result of a cyber-attack;

* Defended and represented over 30 defendants in a multi-year complex trade secret, non-competes with counterclaims for wages and earned stock compensation;

* Defended a Fortune 500 corporation in a federal eminent domain lawsuit involving the installation of gas pipelines under the purview of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission;

* Defended internationally-renowned hip-hop recording artists, producers and record labels in multi-year - multi-million dollar - civil conspiracy/intentional tort lawsuit;

* Represented a large casino who sought to enforce non-compete and non-solicitation agreements of former employees and prohibit key competitors from using sensitive trade secret information;

* Defended a personal-representative and trustee in a multi-year complex multi-million dollar lawsuit;

* Defended a large commercial building owner in a regulatory zoning lawsuit (vacant building receivership) brought by Baltimore City;

* Defended a firearms designer in a commercial lawsuit;

* Defended a prominent Baltimore law firm in a multi-million dollar defamation/invasion of privacy lawsuit brought by a public official;

* Pursued claims against Baltimore County and Board of Education for inaction involving repeated cyber-bullying incidents;

* Represented minority shareholders of a Fortune 500 company in a complex shareholder dispute.

Mr. Esworthy defended individuals and businesses targeted for criminal prosecution by federal and state authorities, including:

* Defended a prominent Baltimore businessman against federal antitrust (bid rigging) charges;

* Defended a Washington D.C. construction company against federal criminal conspiracy and fraud charges;

* Defended a prominent Israeli businessman against federal tax fraud charges;

* Defended a Virginia based home construction business against federal bank and mortgage fraud charges;

* Defended an international businessman for financial crimes against the U.S. State Department committed during the war in Afghanistan;

* Defended numerous federal and state cybercrime prosecutions;

* Defended and represented targets in election law fraud prosecutions;

* Defended small business owners for Medicare and Medicaid fraud claims;

* Represented numerous businesses in complying with Federal & State subpoenas in a wide variety of cases.

Education

Awards