Overview
Matt Chou, based in the firm’s San Francisco office, is a trial lawyer and former Justice Department official in the Antitrust & Competition practice of Paul Hastings. Matt helps companies and executives assess risk in their business practices and transactions, respond to criminal and civil investigations, clear mergers, defend litigation, and bring affirmative antitrust claims. A former federal prosecutor, he served as counsel to the assistant attorney general of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.
Matt’s practice spans civil and criminal matters, conduct and mergers, and litigation through trial. At the Justice Department, he led the reportedly historic prosecution of a global antitrust cartel; shaped the United States’ monopolization lawsuit against Apple; secured one of the first-ever antitrust convictions in a labor market; reviewed mergers in the technology and AI industries; and won a multi-week jury trial against a CEO who had conspired with lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Matt also helped launch the Antitrust Division’s new Whistleblower Rewards Program, which announced its first award in January 2026. At Paul Hastings, Matt partners with practice groups across the firm, such as M&A, intellectual property, employment, and foreign direct investment, to serve the various client needs that intersect with state and federal antitrust laws.
Before joining the Justice Department, Matt worked as a litigator at another global law firm and as an investment analyst at an alternative asset manager. Matt also clerked for the Honorable Thomas M. Hardiman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the Honorable Lucy H. Koh, then of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and now of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Accolades
- Recipient of three Antitrust Division Assistant Attorney General’s Awards of Distinction, U.S. Department of Justice
Education
- Yale Law School, J.D., 2018 (Articles Editor, Yale Journal on Regulation)
- Columbia University, B.A., Economics and Political Science (summa cum laude & Phi Beta Kappa), 2014
Representations
At the U.S. Department of Justice
- United States v. China International Marine Containers (Group) Co., Ltd., et al. (N.D. Cal.) – Led the investigation and prosecution of four of the world’s largest shipping-container manufacturers and seven of their executives, charging them with a global conspiracy affecting billions of dollars of commerce. The case is pending, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
- United States v. Apple Inc. (D.N.J.) – Shaped the complaint charging Apple with unlawfully monopolized smartphone markets and litigated interagency discovery.
- United States v. Lopez (D. Nev.) – Prosecuted a healthcare executive for fixing the wages of home healthcare nurses, resulting in the first jury conviction for labor-market collusion under the Sherman Act.
- In re Deere & Company Repair Services Antitrust Litigation (N.D. Ill., MDL No. 3030) – Briefed and argued, in a multidistrict litigation, the United States’ first statement of interest on the right to repair.
- United States v. Tomlinson, et al. (D. Idaho) – Prosecuted, as part of a court-authorized wiretap investigation, bid-rigging and territorial allocation of wildfire-fighting services. Secured one of the few criminal monopolization convictions in more than four decades.
- United States v. Andrade (N.D. Cal.) – Delivered closing argument and cross-examined the defense’s software-engineering expert in a five-week jury trial that resulted in the conviction of a CEO who had conspired with lobbyist Jack Abramoff and concluded the first-ever criminal case under the Lobbying Disclosure Act.
- Led the nonpublic investigation of a multibillion-dollar merger in the AI industry.
Matters may have been handled prior to joining Paul Hastings.
Engagement & Publications
Speaking Engagements
- “The DOJ’s Antitrust Whistleblower Rewards Program,” Federal Bar Association, Qui Tam Section, Panelist (Sept. 9, 2026)
- “The Path to Antitrust,” California Lawyers Association, Panelist (Nov. 29, 2023)
Publications
- “Agency Interpretations of Executive Orders,” Administrative Law Review, Author (2019)
Involvement
- Member, Judiciary Committee – Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area (2023–present)