Matthew C. Slentz(213) 600-2438
mslentz@chwlaw.us

Matthew is an associate with Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley’s litigation practice group and resident in our Orange County office.  Matthew litigates a range of disputes for our public agency clients in both trial and appellate courts, including suits involving inverse condemnation, utility user taxes, Public Records Act disputes, post-redevelopment disputes, rates and fees, government contracts, land use and cannabis regulation.

Before joining CHW, Matthew served as Chief Deputy Public Defender for Stanislaus County.  In this role, Matthew managed a team of attorneys defending misdemeanor cases, including violations of local ordinances, coordinated with city and county officials on nuisance abatement strategies, and helped formulate his agency’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a deputy public defender, Matthew conducted 25 jury trials to verdict in felony and misdemeanor cases. He has filed writs and appeals in local and appellate courts and has extensive motion-practice, including Pitchess motions and Cervantes hearings.

While in law school, Matthew worked as a legal assistant for the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Inspector General.  He also served as the Executive Senior Editor for the Georgetown Journal of International Law and on the board of the Equal Justice Foundation.

Matthew graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center. At graduation, he received the Alan Goldstein Award for excellence in criminal defense and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of California, Irvine, where he was a Regents’ Scholar and graduated with Scholastic Merit. He and his wife and two children recently located to Burbank to join our Pasadena office and are happy to be back in Southern California.

Practice Areas:

  • Complex Litigation
  • Public Law
  • Public Revenues
  • Class Action Defense
  • Appellate Litigation
  • Inverse Condemnation
  • Public Records Act Disputes
  • Contract Disputes
  • Cannabis Regulation
  • Land Use Litigation