Matt Holian
Massachusetts
DLA Piper LLP
33 Arch Street, 26th Floor
Boston
MA, 02110-1447
Tel: +1 617 406 6009
Email:
matt.holian@us.dlapiper.com
Web:
www.dlapiper.com
Matt Holian is a Partner at DLA Piper and an experienced trial lawyer whose practice focuses on complex product liability, mass tort, and multidistrict litigation. He regularly represents clients in high-stakes matters involving pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and chemicals, guiding cases from early risk assessment through discovery, bellwether trials, and final resolution.
Matt has substantial experience developing and executing strategy in large-scale federal MDLs. He has helped secure precedent-setting victories involving general causation and federal preemption defenses and, where dispositive defenses are unavailable, has led coordinated resolutions designed to protect clients’ broader business interests. His work frequently requires management of extensive scientific evidence, expert testimony, and large groups of related claims across multiple jurisdictions.
His broader litigation practice includes False Claims Act matters, consumer fraud litigation, commercial disputes arising from licensing agreements, and other complex business claims. Matt also maintains an active regulatory and enforcement practice, conducting compliance investigations and advising clients on research and development issues, clinical trials, product labeling, promotional restrictions, real-world evidence, and value-based contracting. From 2016 through 2024, he served as Global Co-Chair of DLA Piper’s Life Sciences Sector.
Matt’s work has earned sustained recognition from leading legal publications. Chambers USA has ranked him nationally for Product Liability & Mass Torts since 2015, while The Legal 500 United States recognizes him as a Leading Partner for pharmaceutical and medical device product liability defense and has also recommended him for life sciences and toxic tort work. He was named a Client Service All-Star by BTI Consulting Group and has been recognized by Who’s Who Legal: Life Sciences for Product Liability.
Matt earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 2000, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and served on the Stanford Law Review and Stanford Law and Policy Review. He previously received his B.A. in Social Studies, magna cum laude, from Harvard University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and named a Truman Scholar. After law school, he clerked for Judge Charles R. Breyer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
DLA Piper’s Products Liability practice defends life sciences, industrial, technology, and retail companies in complex product liability and mass tort litigation worldwide. The team frequently serves as national, global, or settlement counsel in multi-jurisdictional matters, with particular experience developing strategies aimed at resolving large-scale litigation efficiently and, where possible, at an early stage through dispositive motions and other targeted legal approaches.
The practice combines sophisticated litigation strategy with substantial scientific and technical capability. Its lawyers include medical doctors and professionals with PhDs and other advanced scientific and technical degrees, alongside former regulators and in-house counsel. This multidisciplinary depth allows the team to assess complex medical and scientific evidence, challenge disputed methodologies, and present technical issues clearly to judges and juries.
DLA Piper also has extensive experience coordinating litigation involving numerous jurisdictions, plaintiff firms, and individual claims, supported by technology-enabled case management tools. When matters proceed to trial, the firm fields experienced first-chair trial lawyers for jury and bench proceedings in challenging venues worldwide, combining scientific rigor, litigation management, and courtroom advocacy in the defense of significant product liability claims.
DLA Piper is a global full-service law firm with a substantial U.S. presence spanning more than 20 offices in major business centers including New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Boston, Miami, and Seattle. The firm advises public and private companies, financial institutions, investors, emerging businesses, governmental organizations, and other clients on complex legal, regulatory, transactional, and contentious matters across the United States.
Its U.S. practice covers a broad range of areas including corporate and M&A, private equity, finance, litigation and dispute resolution, real estate, construction, labor and employment, intellectual property, tax, restructuring, government affairs, investigations, and regulatory matters. The firm works across industries including technology, life sciences, financial services, energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, consumer products, real estate, and transportation, allowing multidisciplinary teams to address matters involving overlapping commercial and legal issues.
DLA Piper’s U.S. platform forms part of a wider international network extending across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. This global reach enables U.S.-based lawyers to work closely with colleagues in other jurisdictions on cross-border transactions, disputes, investigations, and regulatory matters, while maintaining strong local knowledge in the markets where clients operate.
“Matt Holian has built a formidable product liability and mass tort practice around the most technically demanding life sciences disputes. His command of scientific evidence, causation, preemption, and MDL strategy makes him particularly effective in matters where litigation risk can affect an entire product portfolio”