Matthew A. Josephson

Matt Josephson joined Chaiken Ghali LLP as a partner in August 2025, following a nearly fifteen-year career as an Assistant United States Attorney and Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. and Savannah, Georgia.

Mr. Josephson’s practice focuses on government investigations, white collar defense, and complex business litigation. A highly accomplished trial lawyer and seasoned litigator, Mr. Josephson brings a trial-ready perspective to a wide range of complex matters.

As an Assistant United States Attorney in Savannah for nearly nine years, Mr. Josephson litigated numerous high-profile criminal and civil matters and tried multiple cases to verdict, including multi-million-dollar fraud matters. He led the investigation and prosecution of some of the most significant white collar matters in the Southern District of Georgia, including cases involving health care fraud, bank fraud, pharmaceutical fraud and abuse, wire fraud, and public corruption. Between 2023 and 2025, Mr. Josephson oversaw his office’s white collar enforcement efforts as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division, supervising approximately twenty prosecutors and spearheading the office’s enforcement efforts in several key areas, including opioid enforcement; financial crimes; blockchain and cryptocurrency matters; and COVID-19 fraud.

Mr. Josephson also litigated significant civil matters involving the health care industry under the False Claims Act and the Controlled Substances Act. He received numerous awards for his work, including a Director’s Award for Superior Performance for his key role in prosecuting and litigating cases involving the overprescription of opioids.

Between 2011 and 2017, Mr. Josephson served as a Trial Attorney at the Federal Programs Branch of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. In that role, Mr. Josephson handled high-stakes constitutional and regulatory cases in federal trial courts across the United States. This included serving as lead counsel in the high-profile multidistrict litigation arising out of the 2015 cyberattack on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which affected over 20 million Americans, and in a variety of cases raising novel constitutional challenges to statutes such as the Communications Decency Act and the America Invents Act. For his civil litigation work, the Justice Department awarded him a Special Commendation for Outstanding Service in 2017.

Mr. Josephson earned his undergraduate degrees from the University of Georgia and his law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law, where he graduated Order of the Coif, competed on multiple moot court teams, and was a member of the law review. After law school, Mr. Josephson served as a law clerk to U.S. Circuit Judge Emmett Ripley Cox of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and to U.S. District Judge W. Harold Albritton III of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.

EDUCATION

  • University of Georgia School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude, 2009
    • Order of the Coif
    • Notes Editor, Georgia Law Review
    • Moot Court Team Member
      • National First Amendment Moot Court Competition
      • Team Champion, Georgia Intrastate Moot Court Competition
  • University of Georgia, B.A., English & Political Science, summa cum laude, 2006
    • Phi Beta Kappa
    • Presidential Scholar (Top 5%)

GOVERNMENT SERVICE

  • Assistant United States Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, 2017-2025
    • Deputy Chief, Criminal Division, 2023-2025
  • Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Federal Programs Branch, 2011-2017
    • DOJ Honors Program
  • Law Clerk, U.S. Circuit Judge Emmett Ripley Cox, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, 2010-2011
  • Law Clerk, U.S. District Judge W. Harold Albritton III, U. S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, 2009-2010

RANKINGS & RECOGNITION

  • Director’s Award for Superior Performance, U.S. Department of Justice (2021)
  • Recognition of Exemplary Prosecution Efforts, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Office of Inspector General (2023)
  • Commendation for Outstanding Service to the Civil Division, United States Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice (2017)
  • Certificate of Excellence in Training, Department of the Army, Criminal Investigation Division (2023)

PUBLICATIONS & SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Publications

Author, “To Exclude or Not to Exclude: The Future of the Exclusionary Rule After Herring v. United States,” 43 Creighton L. Rev. 175 (2009).

Author, “Some Things Are Better Left Said: Pleading Practice After Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly,” 42 Ga. L. Rev. 867 (2008).

Speaking Engagements

Organizer, “Southern District of Georgia: Financial Crimes Summit,” U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, October 2024.

Speaker, “Advanced Bank Secrecy Act Officer School,” Community Bankers Association of Georgia, August 2024.

Speaker, “Prosecuting Financial Crime,” Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police Annual Meeting, July 2023.

Speaker, “Federal Crimes Involving Diversion of Controlled Substances,” University of South Carolina School of Pharmacy, March 2023.

Speaker, “Prosecuting Financial Crime,” Army Criminal Investigative Division Economic Crime Symposium, April 2023.

Speaker, “Parallel Proceedings in Federal Investigations,” Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, June 2021.

Speaker, “Opioid Enforcement and Compliance Considerations for Hospitals and Physicians,” American Health Law Association, February 2020.

Speaker, “Investigating Overdose Cases,” Georgia Coroners Association Annual Meeting, September 2019.

Organizer, “Southern District of Georgia Opioid Roundtable,” U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, May 2018.