Matt Swanson

Associate Environmental

Bay Area – San Francisco +1 415 439 1516

Matt Swanson

Practices

Overview

Matt Swanson is an associate in Kirkland’s global Environmental Practice Group, based in the Firm’s Bay Area office.

Matt’s practice focuses on the intersection of environmental law with all manner of complex business transactions, including corporate mergers, acquisitions, real estate developments and investments, energy and infrastructure projects, financing transactions, securities offerings and restructuring matters. Matt assists his clients in assessing and managing environmental risks and liabilities in transactional and operational contexts, combining legal insight and business acumen with creative problem-solving to achieve their goals.

In addition to advising his clients, Matt is proud to serve as the co-chair of the Firm’s Bay Area Associates Committee. Matt also enjoys connecting with his students in a unique experiential Environmental Transactional Law class taught at both the University of California Berkeley School of Law and the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law.

More

Thought Leadership

Publications

Co-Author, “Environmental Law and Practice in the United States,” Thomson Reuters Practical Law Series, January 2025

Co-Author, “Seeking Clarity, the U.S. Supreme Court Narrows Clean Water Act Jurisdiction over Wetlands in Sackett v. EPA,” Kirkland Alert, June 2023

Co-Author, “EPA’s Proposed New Emission Limits are Latest Development in Conflicting Visions to Regulate Power Plants,” Kirkland Alert, May 2023

Co-Author, “The Major Questions Doctrine Reigns Supreme in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency – Implications for Climate Policy and Impact Investing,” Kirkland Alert, July 2022

Speaking Engagements

Panel Moderator, “Dealing (and Doing Deals) with Emerging Contaminants,” Environmental Transactional Roundtable, September 2024

Recognition

Adjunct Professor, University of California Berkeley School of Law, Environmental Transactional Law, 2022–Present

Adjunct Professor, University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law, 2024–Present

Credentials

Admissions & Qualifications

  • 2021California

Education

  • University of Pennsylvania Carey Law SchoolJ.D.2020

    Editor-in-Chief, Journal of International Law

  • Occidental CollegeB.A., Diplomacy & World Affairs; Urban & Environmental Policy Minorcum laude2014