Rhode Island – October 3, 2022 – Pannone Lopes Devereaux & O’Gara LLC (PLDO) announced that Matthew “Matty” A. Lopes Jr., a principal and founding member of the law firm, was selected to receive a 2022 Neil J. Houston, Jr. Memorial Award by Justice Assistance, a nonprofit organization that has been in the vanguard of providing criminal justice services and improvements to the Rhode Island community since 1978. Matty will be presented the award at a ceremony on Thursday, October 6, 2022, at the Marriott in Providence.
The Neil J. Houston, Jr. Memorial Award is recognized as the most prestigious award presented within Rhode Island’s criminal justice system. Along with Matty, other distinguished Rhode Islanders receiving the award include: John Alford, Captain (Ret) RI State Police and Faculty of Salve Regina University; Robert Houghtaling, Substance Abuse Coordinator, Office of Senior & Human Services, Town of East Greenwich; the Honorable Daniel A. Procaccini, Associate Justice, RI Superior Court, Tim White, Investigative Reporter, WPRI-TV; and Attorney Misty Delgado, RI Department of Children, Youth & Families, who will be receiving the R. Kevin Horan Emerging Leader Award 2022.
“The staff and board of directors of Justice Assistance are humbled to be honoring Attorney Matthew A. Lopes Jr. with this prestigious award,” said Katherine Brown, Deputy Director. “Matty’s breadth of work is remarkable. Of particular consideration and importance when Matty’s name was put forth as a nominee was his body of work as a Special Master, and how influential he has been toward the improvement of standards in correctional systems across the country, particularly in California.”
Matty is a highly respected government and legislative affairs attorney. For most of his 35-year legal career, he has been actively involved in the court oversight of correctional systems and is a nationally recognized Special Master in correctional reform litigation. For the past 26 years, he has served the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in the matter of Coleman v. Newsom, including since 2007 in his current role as Special Master. As Special Master in this case, Matty leads a team of experts and monitors in overseeing the care provided to more than 30,000 seriously mentally ill patients throughout the 34 institutions within the California prison system. In addition to his current practice as a Special Master in the Coleman v. Newsom case, Matty also leads the firm’s Alternative Dispute Resolution practice, as well as PLDO Strategies LLC, the government relations and communications subsidiary of the law firm, representing organizations ranging from Fortune 100 companies to nonprofit businesses, including organizations within the transportation, pharmaceutical, education, food service, health care, and insurance industries, among others.
Matty earned his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College. In 2021, he was selected for inclusion into The National Black Lawyers Top 100 in Rhode Island, an honor given to a distinct group of lawyers who have demonstrated superior skills in their fields of law or who have excelled in areas promoting diversity. In addition, he has been named to The Best Lawyers in America list for over 10 years, and recognized as Rhode Island’s 2021 Best Lawyer “Lawyer of the Year” by his peers and clients for his work in government relations.
To contact Matty, please call 401-824-5100 or email mlopes@pldolaw.com. For information about PLDO, visit www.pldolaw.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. For more information about PLDO Strategies, visit www.pldostrategies.com.
