Matthew S. Garnett

Matthew Garnett is a Partner and Business Unit Leader at Kelley Kronenberg. He focuses his practice on general liability and third-party insurance defense, including representation of both carriers and insureds for all commercial and professional lines.  

Matthew has nearly two decades of legal experience which extends across diverse practice areas, including significant experience in the professional liability arena (e.g., defense of attorneys, physicians, architects and engineers, real estate professionals, directors and officers, etc.). In addition, Matthew has performed substantial work defending claims involving premises liability, negligent security, commercial trucking accidents, construction defect, products liability and first-party property insurance. Finally, Matthew has dedicated a meaningful portion of his career to the representation of private clients facing employment law matters, franchisor/franchisee disputes, hospitality industry regulatory and business disputes, long-term care industry transactional and regulatory matters, and intellectual property disputes. 

Throughout his career, Matthew’s work has gravitated towards the most challenging and high stakes litigation within his practice areas, and this has resulted in significant experience defending claims against the most well-resourced and aggressive adversaries. His approach to litigation focuses on candidly weighing the ‘cost of results’ at all stages with clients and insurance professionals. 

Before joining Kelley Kronenberg, Matthew was managing partner for a distinguished practice group in Miami, Florida. In this role, in addition to formulating the strategic approach for all litigation within the department, he also built an impressive winning record as a first-chair trial attorney. 

Matthew earned his Juris Doctorate in 2006 from Vanderbilt University Law School, where he served as the Executive Editor for the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, as well as a member of the Law Review/Law Journal Write-On Competition Audit Committee.