Matthew Pletcher

Houston, TX
Partner

Matthew Pletcher focuses his practice on litigation of business, commercial, product liability, professional negligence, and employment disputes (including wrongful termination and non-competition agreements).

Education
  • South Texas College of Law, Houston, Texas (J.D., 1987)
  • Pepperdine University (B.S. in Business Administration, 1984)
Admissions to Practice
  • Texas
  • U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Districts of Texas
Representative Cases
  • Handled fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, civil RICO, and Deceptive Trade Practices Act cases
  • Handled fraudulent stock transfer case involving claims of fraud, conspiracy, conversion, and tortious interference with a business relationship
  • Handled breach of fiduciary case involving violations of the Securities Fraud Act and civil conspiracy
  • Handled breach of fiduciary duty case involving Sam Houston Race Park stock transaction dispute
  • Represented one of Texas’ largest schools and its individual faculty members and tenured/associate professors in complex negligence litigation
  • Defended to verdict a nephrologist in a wrongful death case involving a chronic dialysis patient who was not given dialysis for over two weeks
  • Represented numerous physicians in cases involving alleged birth asphyxia and brain damage
  • Represented a prominent plastic surgeon in a bilateral breast reconstruction case involving multiple surgeries and postoperative infections
  • Defended to verdict a legal malpractice case against a prominent Houston plaintiffs’ personal injury firm in a two-month trial
  • Represented a telemedicine company for more than 40 commercial airlines in cases involving in-flight emergencies
  • Represented a private corrections company in claims alleging deprivation of medical care to inmates
  • Represented a pharmaceutical corporation in complex litigation throughout Texas, including primary responsibility for engaging case-specific medical experts and handling numerous Daubert pretrial challenges to medical expert testimony concerning general and specific causation
  • Represented several nursing homes in litigation involving alleged nursing and medical malpractice and alleged elder abuse and injury
  • Represented highway contractors in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases
Representative Publications
  • "A Review of Tort Reform’s Impact on Malpractice Premiums: Is It the Answer?," Group Practice Journal, 2004
Memberships & Affiliations
  • State Bar of Texas: Health Law, Litigation, and Appellate Sections
  • American Bar Association
  • Houston Bar Association, Litigation Section
  • The Texas Association of Defense Counsel
  • Texas Young Lawyers Association
Presentations and Seminars
  • "Tort Reform in Texas," ACE, New York City, NY, March 2008
  • "Tort Reform in Texas," Baylor College of Medicine, April 2007
  • "Underwriting and Claims Handling After House Bill 4," 2006
  • "Anatomy of a Lawsuit - Avoiding the Inevitable," (how to avoid a medical malpractice claim) Century Healthcare of Texas, Inc. DBA Champions Treatment Center, December, 1995
  • "Cross-Examination by Exception to the Rules," Texas Association of Defense Counsel, TADC Houston Rookie Seminar, 1994
  • "Managed Care Liability in the 90s: What’s on First? No, Who’s on First, What’s on Second, I Don’t Know Who’s on Third," Myron F. Steves & Company, Risk Management Seminar, 1994