Matthew Platkin

Matt Platkin is a partner at Platkin LLP, a mission-driven law firm dedicated to holding the powerful to account based in Newark, New Jersey. Matt has dedicated his career to taking on the powerful and using the law to protect the public from harm.

From 2022 to 2026, Matt served as New Jersey’s 62nd Attorney General. In that role, he led national lawsuits that reshaped industries, defended our democracy, and protected the public. Known for being a fearless and strategic litigator, Matt has been at the forefront of the nation’s most cutting-edge consumer protection and antitrust litigations against the tech industry and has developed laws that have transformed the regulatory landscape. He has led national lawsuits against tech giants such as Apple, Amazon, Meta, and TikTok, and has emerged as a prominent voice in efforts to protect the public from the harms caused by AI.

Matt’s efforts to defend our democracy included leading dozens of the most prominent lawsuits against the Trump Administration and coordinating the overarching state strategy to stand up to the President when he broke the law. His efforts included successfully defending Birthright Citizenship up to the United States Supreme Court and restoring trillions of dollars in unlawful funding cuts. Matt developed a reputation for independence and unwavering integrity, having overseen numerous high-profile civil and criminal investigations of prominent individuals and organizations across the political spectrum. He also took various public legal positions that helped improve democratic processes and access to the ballot in New Jersey and across the country.

A lifelong advocate to end the gun violence epidemic, Matt formed the first-ever office dedicated exclusively to bringing civil lawsuits to hold bad actors in the firearms industry accountable under state law. In the years that followed, Matt led numerous lawsuits against firearms industry participants, including groundbreaking litigations against some of the largest gun manufacturers in the world. These efforts helped drive gun violence to historic lows during Matt’s tenure as Attorney General.

Prior to serving as Attorney General, Matt practiced at two national law firms where he handled a range of civil and criminal matters, and served as Chief Counsel to the Governor of New Jersey from 2018 to 2020. He was the first New Jersey Attorney General in more than a decade to personally argue before the State’s Supreme Court and he has managed single- and multi-state settlement negotiations that produced some of the largest financial recoveries in United State history in consumer protection, securities, environmental, products liability, qui tam and other matters. He has also crafted injunctive relief that transformed how industries operate and protected Americans from future harm. Matt understands how to fight, how to win, and how to deliver results.

A leader in the Attorney General community, Matt was and remains an active participant in the National Association of Attorneys General, the Attorney General Alliance, and the Democratic Attorneys General Association.

Matt is a frequent and sought-after commentator in the media, and he has been featured in numerous print, television, podcast, and new media outlets. He is a graduate of Stanford University and Stanford Law School, and is currently a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Center for Law and Public Trust at NYU Law School.

Representative Matters

• Served as a lead state Attorney General and a coordinator of dozens of multistate litigations in response to unlawful actions taken by the Trump Administration, including defending Birthright Citizenship up to the United States Supreme Court in Trump v. Casa. Other leading litigation efforts include defending against trillions of dollars in funding cuts, fighting to keep 12,000 machine gun conversion devices off American streets and opposing the dismantling of the Department of Education, among others. These lawsuits resulted in numerous court victories, protected core constitutional rights, and preserved tens of billions of dollars in funding for the State of New Jersey.
• Served as an executive committee member and lead state Attorney General in landmark national lawsuits against TikTok and Meta, and was the first State Attorney General to sue Discord, for the harms the social media platforms cause children.
• Served as the lead State Attorney General alongside the United States Department of Justice in a national lawsuit against Apple for monopolizing the smartphone market, one of the most consequential antitrust cases ever filed.
• Became the first State Attorney General to resolve major PFAS lawsuits with Dupont, Solvay, and 3M, with total settlements exceeding $3 billion in value. The Dupont settlement was the largest ever environmental settlement by a single state, with the value exceeding $2 billion.
• Filed more affirmative lawsuits against bad actors in the firearms industry than any other State Attorney General in history, including leading landmark lawsuits against Glock, Inc. and Sig Sauer, Inc., two of the largest gun manufacturers in the world. Survived multiple dispositive motions and obtained a settlement and summary judgment with two different gun retailers for violating state laws.
• Achieved the single largest non-Medicaid healthcare fraud settlement in New Jersey history, resulting in a $100 million payment from Horizon Healthcare Services for improperly billing the State of New Jersey.
• Led major lawsuits against Amazon for systemically discriminating against pregnant and disabled employees and for misclassifying drivers as independent contractors, thus depriving them of wages, benefits, and other protections.
• Led an antitrust lawsuit against Realpage and 10 of New Jersey’s largest landlords for allegedly colluding in a rent-raising scheme that violated state and federal antitrust and consumer protection laws.
• Litigated and resolved numerous Opioids lawsuits, resulting in billions of dollars in recoveries for the State of New Jersey and those harmed by the Opioid epidemic, including claims against Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sacklers, Johnson & Johnson, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, and Teva, among others.
• Led New Jersey’s intervention in federal court in the Fifth Circuit to defend Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which ultimately protected the program from legal challenges brought by several states.

*The above matters were handled prior to joining Platkin LLP.