J. Matthew Maguire, Jr.

Matt Maguire is a partner at Parks, Chesin & Walbert, P.C. He is a trial lawyer with a diverse practice that includes litigating against government entities and general business litigation. A substantial amount of Matt’s practice is devoted to the representation of government contractors in bid protests and related litigation. Over the past twenty years, Matt has represented either the protester or the winning bidder in the vast majority of bid significant protests heard by the Georgia Department of Administrative Services. He also has experience deciding bid protests as a former Fulton County Bid Protest Hearing Officer. Matt’s business litigation experience involves trade secrets and restrictive covenants, employment disputes, whistleblower cases, shareholder and partnership break-ups, and construction and real estate disputes.

Matt’s legal expertise has been sought by Georgia house and senate subcommittees and task forces on topics ranging from procurement practices at the Atlanta airport to the jurisdiction of the courts to resolve internal disputes within religious organizations. Matt has also testified as an expert witness in a jury trial before the Georgia Statewide Business Court.

Before joining Parks, Chesin & Walbert, Matt was a partner in a full-service southeastern regional firm where he served on the firm’s executive committee. He holds an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell and has been selected several times as a Georgia Super Lawyer by Law and Politics and Atlanta Magazine, and as a “Legal Elite” by Georgia Trend magazine. Matt was featured in 2008 in the Fulton County Daily Report as one of twelve Georgia attorneys under the age of 40 who are “on the rise.” Matt graduated from Leadership Georgia’s Class of 2011 and is a former chair of the Litigation Section of the Atlanta Bar Association.

Representative Experience

• Successfully represented the CEO of a publicly traded company in a wrongful termination action.
• Trial counsel in a libel action that yielded a seven figure jury verdict against a national political party.
• Successfully defended a consortium of bidders against claims that they violated the Sherman Act and state procurement rules prohibiting collusion among bidders.
• Lead counsel for a prominent affordable housing developer in long-running litigation against the Atlanta Housing Authority.
• Lead counsel in a successful constitutional challenge to a city’s moratorium on the issuance of building permits.
• Lead counsel in an appeal from the State of Georgia’s denial of film tax credits to a film production company that filmed a feature length movie in Georgia.
• Successfully protested an Atlanta Airport concessions procurement on several grounds, including misapplication of federal DBE regulations, which led to a decision to reissue the solicitation.
• Lead trial counsel for a businessman seeking to recover his ownership interesting a consulting business, which resulted in significant punitive damages and attorneys’ fees awards.
• Won dismissal of an action brought by a city against current and former city council members seeking personal liability for city debts based upon alleged conflicts of interest.
• Won dismissal of a State Ethics Commission proceeding against a sitting superior court judge.
• Obtained Eleventh Circuit reversal of a ruling that invalidated a non-competition covenant (H&R Block Enterprises v. Morris, 606 S. 3d 1285 (2010)).
• Convinced the Georgia Supreme Court that the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs has no authority to investigate a law firm (State of Georgia v. Frederick J. Hanna & Associates, 2010 Ga. LEXIS 421)).
• Lead plaintiff’s counsel in a jury trial resulting in substantial damages assessed against Fulton County for selective enforcement of its erosion control ordinances (affirmed on appeal at Fulton County v. Legacy Investment Group, LLC, 296 Ga. App. 822, 676 S.E. 2d 388 (2009)).

Services and Practices

• Government contracts
• Business litigation
• State and local government litigation
• Real estate litigation
• Restrictive covenants
• Construction litigation
• Insurance coverage litigation
• Employment law
• Civil rights litigation

Publications

“A Little Known Exception to the Rule Against Remote Damages.” Calendar Call, Spring/Summer 2023, pp. 11-13.

“The Paradox that Is Georgia’s Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing,” Georgia Bar Journal, Vol. 29, No. 2, 2023, pp. 16-25.

Papers

• Restraints on Physician Competition in Georgia
• Georgia Rules of Statutory Construction
• Litigating Against Government Entities in Georgia
• Corey Airport Services, Inc. v. Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc.
• Land Use Litigation Under the Civil Rights Act
• Judicial Review of Bid Protest Decisions