
Matthew X. Etchemendy

2200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Suite 500 West
Washington, D.C. 20037

Max’s principal area of practice is appellate litigation. He has represented clients in high-stakes matters across a wide range of subject matters, including federal environmental permitting, energy regulation, contract disputes, mass tort defense, copyright litigation, taxation, eminent domain, and constitutional law. Max has particular experience with federal administrative law and energy infrastructure, assisting clients at every stage of the process, from filings before federal administrative agencies to the federal appellate courts.
Prior to joining V&E, Max served as a judicial clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States and to Chief Judge Merrick B. Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Max has an academic background in both law and philosophy, and has published in several academic venues. While at V&E, Max has served as an instructor for the University of Virginia School of Law’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and for the University of Chicago Law School’s Law and Philosophy Workshop.
Experience Highlights
(D.C. Cir.) — Principal drafter of brief successfully defending dismissal of claims that FERC’s statutory funding structure violated due process by, among other things, creating bias in favor of approving new pipeline projects
(8th Cir.) – In civil asset forfeiture appeal, successfully petitioned for rehearing en banc, prepared supplemental merits briefs, and successfully argued case before en banc Eighth Circuit, which unanimously overruled contrary Eighth Circuit precedent and reversed adverse district court decision
(N.Y.) – As member of an appellate team, successfully briefed certified-question case before the New York Court of Appeals, securing favorable holding that mass toxic tort claims were not covered by state law tolling statute of limitations
(D.C. Cir.) – As court-appointed amicus curiae, briefed and argued case on legal ethics and appellate jurisdiction, successfully arguing that appeal should be dismissed for lack of statutory jurisdiction
(U.S.) – As member of an appellate team, briefed case involving the copyrightability of annotations to a state’s official code
(U.S.) – Drafted certiorari-stage amicus brief supporting challenge to Federal Housing Finance Agency and Treasury Department’s treatment of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during federal conservatorship
(U.S.) – As member of an appellate team, filed certiorari-stage amicus brief supporting challenge to California Public Utilities Commission’s treatment of wildfire-related costs under the Takings Clause
(D.C. Cir.) – Drafted multiple amicus briefs supporting FERC’s limited consideration of upstream and downstream greenhouse gas emissions under NEPA for natural gas pipeline projects
(D.C. Cir.) — Drafted amicus brief supporting FCC’s decision to classify broadband Internet access service as an information service not subject to common-carrier regulation
(U.S.) — Drafted petition for writ of certiorari raising preemption claims under Occupational Safety and Health Act
(U.S.) — Drafted certiorari-stage amicus brief supporting challenge to constitutionality of local taxation of temporarily stored natural gas
(AAA) — Wrote multiple briefs in arbitration of breach of contract claim involving multi-billion-dollar construction agreement for military warships
Credentials
- Stanford Law School, J.D., 2012 (Stanford Law Review, Senior Editor; Stanford Technology Law Review, Editor)
- Stanford University, Ph.D., Philosophy, 2016
- Stanford University, B.S. Symbolic Systems (with distinction); B.A. Philosophy (with honors and distinction), 2006
- Law and Philosophy Fellow, University of Chicago Law School, 2016 – 2017
- Judicial clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Supreme Court of the United States, 2013 – 2014
- Judicial clerk to Chief Judge Merrick B. Garland, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 2012 – 2013
- The Best Lawyers in America© (BL Rankings, LLC), “Ones to Watch,” Appellate Practice (Washington), 2021–2023
- Selected to the Washington, D.C. Rising Stars list, Super Lawyers® (Thomson Reuters), 2021–2023
- District of Columbia
- Maryland
- Supreme Court of the United States
- United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, Ninth, and District of Columbia Circuits
- United States Court of Federal Claims
- Rankings & AwardsApril 28, 2023
- Rankings & AwardsAugust 18, 2022
- Deals & CasesAugust 1, 2022
- InsightJuly 5, 2022
V&E Environmental Update
- Rankings & AwardsMay 2, 2022
- InsightFebruary 24, 2022
V&E Energy Update
- InsightFebruary 24, 2022
V&E Energy Update
- Rankings & AwardsApril 22, 2021
- Press ReleaseJanuary 28, 2021
- Navigating the Transition: Key Environmental Enforcement Issues to Watch in the Biden AdministrationInsightJanuary 22, 2021
- InsightJanuary 20, 2021
- InsightJanuary 20, 2021
- InsightJuly 8, 2019
- InsightJuly 1, 2019
- Legal Realism and Legal Reality, 88 Tenn. L. Rev. 399 (2021)
- Naturalism in Legal Philosophy (with Brian Leiter), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Edward N. Zalta ed., Fall 2021 ed.)
- The Methods of Philosophy of Law: The Naturalistic Method, Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (M. Sellers & S. Kirste eds. 2020)
- American Realism – Development and Critique, Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (M. Sellers & S. Kirste eds. 2018)
- New Directions in Legal Expressivism, 22 Legal Theory 1 (2016)
News & Insights
V&E Environmental Update