Matthew J. O'Toole is primarily involved in two practice areas at Morris James: Corporations and Other Business Organizations, and Financial Institutions and Commercial Transactions.
Mr. O'Toole concentrates his practice on corporate and business transactions, particularly the structure and use of Delaware business entities, including Delaware corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships (general and limited), and statutory trusts. He often serves as Delaware counsel to lenders, borrowers, investors, managers, trustees and other parties involved in both domestic and international business transactions. His practice frequently involves providing third-party legal opinions concerning Delaware's General Corporation Law, Delaware's alternative entity statutes, the Delaware UCC and other applicable law.
Mr. O'Toole currently serves as a member of the Council of the Corporation Law Section of the Delaware State Bar Association. He also sits on the drafting committee responsible for the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act, the Delaware Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act and the Delaware Revised Partnership Act. He has served previously on other committees established by the Council, including the Technology Update Committee, which undertook a comprehensive review of Delaware's General Corporation Law to study and recommend changes to that statute to accommodate current technology. Mr. O'Toole is one of the principal drafters of the Delaware Revised Captive Insurance Company Act. He is co-author of Symonds & O'Toole on Delaware Limited Liability Companies, published by Wolters Kluwer Law & Business/Aspen Publishers. His articles on amendments to Delaware's corporate and alternative entity statutes and the Delaware UCC are published regularly in CSC's Delaware Laws Governing Business Entities, and he is co-author of the "Delaware Limited Liability Company Practice Guide," in State Limited Liability Company & Partnership Laws, published by Aspen Law & Business.
Mr. O'Toole was born in Teaneck, New Jersey, and was admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1994. He is a graduate of Fordham University (summa cum laude, B.A. 1985; M.A., 1988) and Marshall-Wythe School of Law, College of William and Mary (J.D., 1992), where he was a member of the William and Mary Law Review and awarded membership in the Order of the Coif. He is a former law clerk to The Honorable Rebecca Beach Smith, U.S. District Judge, United States District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, and is a member of the American Bar Association and the Delaware State Bar Association (Corporation Law Section, Commercial Law Section).