Mathilda is a multifaceted litigator who solves clients’ business disputes and personal challenges through creative solutions and traditional litigation mechanisms, driven by each client’s particular priorities. Mathilda’s practice encompasses complex commercial litigation, class actions, white-collar criminal and administrative investigations, trust and estate litigation, appellate litigation, and insurance coverage disputes. Through strategic discovery, well-researched briefing, and effective oral advocacy, she has repeatedly obtained favorable pre-trial resolutions and won cases on motions to dismiss, at summary judgment, and following trial.
In her Complex Commercial Litigation practice, Mathilda handles business disputes for companies and non-profits in the higher education, entertainment, pharmaceuticals, retail & consumer brands and real estate industries, among others. Mathilda’s expertise includes contract disputes, trade secrets cases, joint venture and partnership disputes, and business tort claims. In addition, Mathilda regularly and successfully defends against class action claims arising under state consumer protection laws, particularly those brought against landlords by residential tenants, and is one of a handful of class action defense lawyers in Massachusetts with in-depth knowledge of the Massachusetts security deposit and submetering laws. In her complex litigation practice, Mathilda also defends multinational insurance companies in emerging and complex coverage issues and disputes. Her appellate experience uniquely positions her to help clients in all of these areas anticipate and navigate potential appellate issues as well.
As an associate in the firm’s White-Collar Criminal Defense Group, Mathilda has expertise representing high-profile, high-net-worth individuals in all manner of investigations, with a particular focus on fraud investigations and charges levied by the Department of Justice and private institutions. In addition to her individual representation in the white-collar space, Mathilda counsels private clients in various probate-related disputes including trustee removal actions, executor and administrator fiduciary duty claims, and a range of will and trust disputes.
Mathilda has a particular passion for legal issues facing the higher education industry. For clients in this sector, Mathilda draws on her broad experience as a lead team member in the defense of the “Varsity Blues” college admissions cases, an advisor to companies operating in the education space, and directly in the industry, including as a former legal intern at the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, an Education Pioneers Fellow, and an administrator at Columbia University. Mathilda has leveraged this experience to advise clients on compliance with federal education laws such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and aid clients in navigating Title IX investigations on campus, among other representations.
Mathilda also has an active pro bono practice, with a particular focus on immigration issues, for which she has received Mintz’s Pro Bono Award and the Lawyers for Civil Rights Pro Bono Award. In 2017, she helped an immigrant secure release from ICE custody after nearly a year of detention on a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. She has assisted Lawyers for Civil Rights file briefs of amici curiae in seminal cases involving affirmative action and the inclusion of a citizenship question on the U.S. census before the U.S. Supreme Court, partnered with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts on a seminal case that shifted the burden of proof in bond hearings for certain immigrants detained during removal proceedings, and represented the NAACP – Boston Branch as an intervenor in a high-profile case regarding the admissions criteria for Boston’s highly selective public schools.
Prior to joining the firm, Mathilda served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Robert J. Cordy of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and to the Honorable Douglas P. Woodlock of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. During law school, Mathilda was editor-in-chief of the Boston College Law Review and a student attorney in the Boston College Legal Assistance Bureau.
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