Matthew S. Buttacavoli was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1972.  Matthew graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Irvine (B.A., 1995) and cum laude from the University of San Diego School of Law (J.D., 1999), where he served as Executive Editor of the San Diego Law Review and received the General George W. Hickman, Jr. Award for excellence in Constitutional Law. 

Matthew was admitted to the California Bar in 1999, and was admitted to the United States Supreme Court Bar in 2003.  He was also admitted to the United States District Court for the Central and Southern Districts of California. Matthew is an alumnus of the Family Law Trial Institute, a nationally preeminent program which for more than twenty years has provided advanced education, training and instruction in trial practice. He is also an alumnus of the Advanced Business Valuation Institute.  He has been named a Certified Specialist in Family Law by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization.

In June 24, 2014 after being nominated by the Public Law Center's Board of Directros. Mathew S. Buttacavoli was awarded the Wiley W. Manuel Certificate for pro bono legal services by the State Bar of California Board of Trustees in recognition for his voulantary provision of legal services to the poor or disadvantaged, improving the law and the legal system and increasing access to justice.

Matthew’s publications include “Must Post-Termination Procedural Due Process Include a Full, Trial-Like Evidentiary Hearing? A Critique of Townsel v. San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board,” San Diego Law Review, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Fall 1999).  Matthew has also been a guest speaker for the Litigation Section of the Orange County Paralegal Association.

Matthew is a member of the Board of Directors of the Constitutional Rights Foundation - Orange County.  He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Veterans Legal Institute. Matthew is a member of the Orange County Bar Association Family Law Section, and is a Past President and curernt Board Member of the Italian-American Lawyers of Orange County (Lex Romana).  He sits on the Resolutions Committee of the Orange County Bar Association and is a Founding Fellow of the Society of Fellows of the Orange County Bar Foundation.  Matthew has also served on the Orange County Public Law Center’s Volunteers for Justice Dinner Committee and its Silent Auction Committee and served as the Silent Auction Committee’s co-chair through 2013. Matthew is an Ambassador Member of the National Italian-American Foundation, a member of the Federalist Society, and previously served on the Board of Directors for the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO), Region 85. 

Although, Matthew currently limits his practice to Family Law, his previous legal experience includes general civil litigation, business and contract disputes, complex products liability and construction defects, real estate, title and escrow, mortgage and finance, wrongful death, torts, and appeals.