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Matt Broughton is a Senior Partner and serves on the Executive Board for the firm. Matt heads the Plaintiff’s/Personal Injury/Subrogation practice areas at Gentry Locke. He is a licensed tractor-trailer driver, holding a commercial driver’s license (CDL) class A, is an ATP rated pilot, and holds a boat operator’s license. During his decades of experience, he has tried hundreds of complex cases in the areas of personal injury, trucking accidents, business disputes, worker’s compensation, and aviation law, many involving millions of dollars. Matt is consistently noted among the Best Lawyers in America® for Plaintiff’s Personal Injury and Products Liability litigation. He is also regularly recognized as a Virginia Super Lawyer in General Personal Injury litigation representing plaintiffs. Matt is Lead Worker’s Compensation counsel for some of the largest and most successful companies in America including Wal-Mart and FELD Entertainment (Marvel, Monster Truck, Disney on Ice).

  • Years at Gentry Locke
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  • Years on firm’s Executive Board
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  • Cases resolved over $1 million
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  • Hours piloting aircraft
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  • Tractor trailer cases; licensed tractor trailer driver (Class A CDL)
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  • What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not working with clients?

    Spending time with my wife and two daughters, traveling around the world, experiencing new cultures and people, playing the guitar, and singing songs.

  • People would be surprised to know...

    I have logged more than 5,000 hours as a pilot and have flown all over the world. My favorite place to fly is Australia. Although I fly everything from gliders to jets, I most frequently fly twin engine pressurized airplanes. I love taking my colleagues and family with me! I also like to wake surf because it is so fun and relaxing. It takes your complete focus. Before I started wake surfing I was a motocross rider.

  • What is your favorite thing about your job? What motivates you?

    I absolutely love helping people and solving their problems – the more complex, the better. I want people to know that they can depend on us to take care of their toughest issues.

  • Matt’s life lesson:

    All problems can be solved with patience and hard work.

Education

  • University of Richmond, J.D.
  • University of Virginia, B.A. with distinction

Special Licenses

  • Pilot – ATP Rated Pilot with over 5,000 flight hours in airplanes ranging from Gliders to Jets
  • Tractor Trailer Driver – Licensed Tractor-Trailer Driver, holding Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) with experience driving on interstates, highways, byways, and rural routes
  • Boat Operator’s License – owned and operated boats for over 40 years

Experience

  • $112.5 million settlement in False Claims Act whistleblower case involving research fraud
  • $75 million settlement in environmental case (coal mining related)
  • $14 million settlement in a products liability accident that caused brain injury and blindness
  • $8 million settlement in products liability case involving scalp degloving injuries and brain injury
  • $7.75 million settlement in a trucking case involving broken bones and head injury
  • $5.5 million settlement in brain injury/trucking case
  • $5 million verdict in premises liability case involving worker falling down 20’ shaft
  • $5 million settlement in a legal malpractice case
  • $4.5 million settlement against responsible parties for product (wash down nozzle) improperly manufactured in China
  • $4.25 million settlement against hazardous material hauler doing illegal U-turn, causing brain injury and horrific orthopedic injuries
  • $4 million for brain injured Plaintiff injured in bus accident case in Australia
  • $4 million settlement for a boating death case
  • $3.5 million trucking case with a back/head injury – un-loading
  • $3.5 million settlement in airplane crash case involving death of a passenger
  • $3.4 million in expected attendant care benefits for double amputee
  • $3 million in expected attendant care benefits for brain injured/blind worker
  • $2.45 million settlement in motorcycle accident case involving facial injuries
  • $1.6 million verdict in complex business litigation case
  • $1.2 million verdict in federal court truck accident case involving fractured spine
  • $1.2 million settlement in automobile crash involving brain injury and leading to appointment of guardian and conservator
  • $1 million for negligently manufactured auger resulting in amputation
  • $1 million settlement against responsible parties for product manufacturing case
  • $1 million for ski accident case resulting in quadriplegia
  • $975,000 settlement for mechanic’s brain injury in automobile accident case
  • $700,000 for injured worker in products liability case involving truck lift gate which fractured lower extremity
  • $500,000 settlement in traumatic brain injury case
  • Resolved multiple brain injury cases for $1 million or more
  • Involved in hundreds of cases involving tractor trailer crashes
  • Multiple cases tried and settled for amounts below $1 million, involving airplane crashes, medical negligence, car accidents, truck accidents, products liability and commercial matters
  • Many years of experience handling complex business transactions
  • Represented multiple companies in buying, selling and changing the ownership status of their businesses
  • Over 25 years of experiencing handling workers’ compensation cases throughout Virginia and subrogation cases arising from such injuries
  • Confidential amount in a sexual assault case of a minor
  • Multiple aviation related cases to include assisting parties in purchase and documentation information of entities to hold aircraft; Represented pilots in enforcement actions prosecuted by FAA

Whistleblower/Qui Tam

Workers’ Compensation

  • Tried over 1,000 workers’ compensation cases and rated as one of the Best Lawyers in America for Worker’s Compensation (1997-2002)
  • Mediated hundreds of workers’ compensation cases
  • Extensive knowledge in complex workers’ compensation cases involving catastrophic injuries such as brain injury and quadriplegia
  • Extensive knowledge of statutory and case law of workers’ compensation gained over the last 30 years
  • Extensive knowledge of medicine as it relates to traumatic injuries and treatment
  • Frequent lecturer on workers’ compensation-related topics

Affiliations

  • President, Southwest Virginia Business Development Association (2005-Present)
  • Chair, VTLA Aviation Committee (2004-2010)
  • Chair, Aviation Committee, Virginia Bar Association (1999-02)
  • Chair, Virginia Bar Association/YLD (1995)
  • Chair, Virginia Bar Association/YLD Membership Committee (1990-92)
  • Plan attorney for the Airplane Owner and Pilots Association (AOPA) (2000-2023)
  • Past President of the IFR Pilots Club (1990-2015)
  • Member, Lawyer Pilots Bar Association
  • Member, Virginia Aviation Trade Association
  • Past Member, Aviation and Space Gallery, Virginia Museum of Transportation

Awards

  • Named a “Best Lawyer in America” for over 25 consecutive years in plaintiffs for Personal Injury Litigation and Product Liability Litigation (1997-2025)
  • Named one of only thirty “Leaders in the Law” statewide, and the sole Roanoke-based recipient, by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (2013)
  • Named to Virginia Super Lawyers in the area of Personal Injury General Plaintiff Litigation (2010-2025), and Business Litigation (2008)
  • Named a Top Rated Lawyer for Litigation & Civil law by American Lawyer Media (2013)
  • “Largest Verdicts in Virginia” designation (2006) as recognized by Virginia Lawyers Weekly
  • Designated as one of the Legal Elite in the Civil Litigation field by Virginia Business magazine (2003-2006, 2019)
  • Named “2012 Roanoke Product Liability Litigation Lawyer of the Year” and Best Lawyers in America Business Edition for Plaintiffs (2016), Best Lawyers in America for Workers Compensation Law (1997-2002)
  • Named a “Legal Eagle” for Product Liability Litigation by Virginia Living magazine (2012)
  • 1998 “Boss of the Year” Award, Roanoke Valley Legal Secretaries Association
  • “Attorney of the Year” Award from a top retail entity (2001)
  • BLIA Lawyer of the Year 2012

Published Work

  • Co-author, They All Fall Down: An Overview of the Law on Deck and Balcony Collapses; “Virginia Lawyer,” the official publication of the Virginia State Bar, Volume 65/Number 4 (December 2016).
  • Co-author, The Law of Damages in Virginia, Chapter 11, Punitive Damages (2nd ed. 2008).

Case Studies

The results of client matters depend on a variety of factors unique to each matter. Past successes do not predict or guarantee future successes.
Matt Broughton, Gentry Locke Litigation Partner
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