Matthew W. Traylor

Matt represents large institutional investors seeking to safeguard and enhance their investments at publicly traded companies. He guides clients in the full range of shareholder activism actions to achieve their goals, including board of director changes, mergers and acquisitions, reforming corporate governance standards, or securing operational changes that create or increase shareholder value. A strong writer, adept communicator, and consummate team player, Matt is practical, calm under pressure, and passionate about getting results that advance his clients’ objectives.

Matt brings a clear understanding of the issues investors face and the broader securities market. Before joining Olshan, he prosecuted securities fraud, class and derivative actions, corporate governance cases, and shareholder rights litigation for some of the world’s largest institutional investors. Through these representations, he has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for defrauded investors in precedent-setting cases. As a member of Olshan’s premier national shareholder activism practice, he leverages deep institutional knowledge and streamlined processes to evaluate a client’s range of strategic options, including with an informed view of how each may affect or implicate litigation.

• Represented Voss Capital in its engagement and settlement with Thunderbird Entertainment Group, Inc., pursuant to which two new directors nominated by Voss were appointed to the board of directors.
• Represented 325 Capital in its engagement and settlement with American Public Education, Inc., pursuant to which one new director was appointed to the board of directors.
• Represented Kanen Wealth Management in its engagement and settlement with Orion Energy Systems, Inc., pursuant to which a shareholder representative was appointed to the board of directors.
• Represented Oxfam America in the submission of its cutting-edge 14a-8 shareholder proposal requesting that Walmart Inc. publish a human rights due diligence report as a means of better understanding the impact of its operations on human rights throughout its supply chain.
• Represented Dialectic Capital in its settlement with Achieve Life Sciences, Inc., pursuant to which three new directors designated by Dialectic were appointed to the board of directors.
• Before joining Olshan, as a trial team member at another firm, recovered $240 million for investors in In re Signet Jewelers Limited Securities’ Litigation, a precedent-setting case that marked the first successful resolution of a securities fraud class action based on allegations of sexual harassment.
• Before joining Olshan, served as a member of another firm’s litigation team that recovered $180 million for shareholders in Employees Retirement System of the City of St. Louis and Electrical Workers Pension Fund, Local 103, IBEW v. Charles E. Jones, FirstEnergy Corp., et al., the largest shareholder derivative settlement in the history of the Sixth Circuit, which arose out of FirstEnergy’s role in the historic bribery scandal tied to Ohio House Bill 6.

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Honors & Recognitions

• Named a “Rising Star” by New York Metro Super Lawyers since 2022
• Listed among the Top 40 Under 40 by The National Black Lawyers Association