Matthew R. Segal named Legal Director of ACLU Foundation of Massachusetts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

BOSTON — The ACLU Foundation of Massachusetts is pleased to announce that Matthew R. Segal will become its new Legal Director on February 27.

“After an exhaustive and nationwide search, and a truly outstanding pool of candidates, we are tremendously pleased to have a new Legal Director with experience in both civil litigation and criminal law,” said Carol Rose, Executive Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. In 2011, long-time ACLU Legal Director John Reinstein elected to become Senior Legal Counsel for the ACLU of Massachusetts.

“Given the extraordinary civil rights and civil liberties challenges facing our state and our nation, it’s exciting for the ACLU of Massachusetts to have a Legal Director of Matt Segal’s caliber, while retaining the benefit of John Reinstein’s wisdom and experience,” said Rose. “The ACLU of Massachusetts is poised to broaden its litigation and advocacy work throughout the Commonwealth in the months and years ahead.”

A federal appellate criminal defense lawyer and civil litigator, Segal comes to the ACLU of Massachusetts from the Appellate Division of the Federal Defenders of Western North Carolina, where he regularly argued cases before the Fourth Circuit.

Segal’s most significant appellate victory is the Fourth Circuit’s decision in U.S. v. Simmons. Adopting arguments he presented at a May 2011 en banc hearing, Simmons changed the Fourth Circuit’s longstanding interpretation of several federal laws. Because of that decision, dozens of people have already seen reversals of their unjust convictions and sentences, and hundreds more stand to obtain similar relief.

“The ACLU of Massachusetts has an outstanding legacy of advocating for the people of the Commonwealth, and I am grateful for this opportunity to join its mission,” said Segal. “I will work hard to help Massachusetts remain one of the nation’s freest states.”

Before his work as an appellate federal defender, Segal was a civil litigator at the law firms of Robbins, Russell and Goodwin Procter, in Washington D.C. He clerked for the Hon. Raymond C. Fisher on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Segal obtained his law degree from Yale Law School and his B.A. from Brandeis University, where he graduated summa cum laude in Mathematics and Sociology. His writing has appeared in the Legal Times and FindLaw.com.

For more information about the ACLU of Massachusetts, go to:
http://www.aclum.org