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This website is a placeholder for Matthew Morrissey's law firm, Dynamic Policy Law. Matthew has now taken a position with Washington State's Department of Commerce. Matthew is no longer representing new clients, either in Colorado or Washington State. Please consult your state's Bar Association legal directories if you are seeking legal respresentation.
Contact Matthew through Linked In...
Matthew Morrissey provides a unique combination of policy expertise, legal knowledge, and persuasive writing skills for those seeking to impact legislation, regulations, and public opinion.
Morrissey is a former journalist who wrote more than 2,000 articles while covering Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court; a former counsel and professional staff member for the United States Senate Commerce Committee; and an environmental and civil rights attorney who has won a statewide court injunction through a published case.
Throughout his career, Morrissey has quickly learned the nuances and tradeoffs of a wide range of public policy areas. (See list below.) Morrissey’s experience will bring fresh and unique insights to your organization’s policy challenges. An outsider’s look at a public policy dynamic often sparks new ideas for influencing public opinion.
Matthew Morrissey’s work experience:
• Eight years as a journalist covering Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court. More than 2,000 articles published in Congress Daily, National Journal, the National Law Journal, and USA Today’s Baseball Weekly. Morrissey covered more than 500 congressional hearings, witnessing both successful and disastrous strategies for testifying before Congress. Morrissey wrote about a wide range of policy issues and developed personal relationships with House and Senate leaders to deliver strategic insights to Washington readers. Morrissey remembers: “There was nothing better than to spend your 20s getting paid to question authority all day.”
• Five years as counsel and a professional staff member for the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee. During that time, Morrissey: o Drafted and negotiated legislation, including the $2 billion section of a highway safety bill that required new vehicles to include side-impact airbags and rollover stability control; o Prepared senators and staff for more than 100 hearings regarding transportation security, anti-competitive business practices, consumer fraud, product safety, and investigations of Enron and Toyota; o Designed and implemented media strategy, including press releases, senators’ statements, and interviews with reporters; and o Received a Congressional Staffer of the Year award from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
• Four years as a member of The Wilderness Society’s litigation team, working on court cases that either challenged or defended environmental regulations under the Administrative Procedure Act.
• Additional experience as the senior staff to the Colorado House Minority Leader, private law practice, and voting rights attorney for a pro-democracy advocacy organization.
• Won a statewide court injunction (including two appeals, the second one published) to stop violations of due process rights set by government policy.
Morrissey has directly worked on transportation, national security, anti-competitive business practices, consumer fraud, product safety, vehicle safety, energy markets, federal lands, climate change, endangered species, energy regulation, and voting rights. Morrissey used the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) to challenge and defend federal regulations.
During his journalism career, Morrissey wrote detailed articles for Washington DC's policy experts about banking and financial services, telecommunications regulation, employment and labor, regulation of medical devices and pharmaceuticals, the health insurance industry, education, student loans, appropriations and budget reconciliation, taxes, and trade agreements.
Morrissey’s journalism experience and instincts guide him in drafting statements and speeches with lines that reporters will actually quote in their stories. One of his former staff directors called Morrissey “a gifted communicator.”
Morrissey specializes in working with complicated numbers, whether Enron tax shelters or writing about a complicated scheme to fund Amtrak by altering the tax depreciation schedules for freight railroad equipment dating back to the 1940s.
Morrissey has used GIS mapping to track wildlife corridors through public lands and to map polling precincts with the longest wait times based upon millions of lines of cell phone data. He can employ those statistical and mapping skills to frame and illustrate your public policy challenge.
Morrissey earned a Certificate of International Trade from the World Trade Center of Colorado, covering trade law, policy, and practices. Morrissey is the author of From Cottonwood and Smithfield, 450-page book tracing the history of the United States through the stories and personal letters of four American families from Idaho and North Carolina. (Use the coupon code on the BookBaby web page for 50 percent off.)
Throughout his career, Morrissey has quickly learned the nuances and tradeoffs of a wide range of public policy areas. (See list below.) Morrissey’s experience will bring fresh and unique insights to your organization’s policy challenges. An outsider’s look at a public policy dynamic often sparks new ideas for influencing public opinion.
Matthew Morrissey’s work experience:
• Eight years as a journalist covering Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court. More than 2,000 articles published in Congress Daily, National Journal, the National Law Journal, and USA Today’s Baseball Weekly. Morrissey covered more than 500 congressional hearings, witnessing both successful and disastrous strategies for testifying before Congress. Morrissey wrote about a wide range of policy issues and developed personal relationships with House and Senate leaders to deliver strategic insights to Washington readers. Morrissey remembers: “There was nothing better than to spend your 20s getting paid to question authority all day.”
• Five years as counsel and a professional staff member for the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee. During that time, Morrissey: o Drafted and negotiated legislation, including the $2 billion section of a highway safety bill that required new vehicles to include side-impact airbags and rollover stability control; o Prepared senators and staff for more than 100 hearings regarding transportation security, anti-competitive business practices, consumer fraud, product safety, and investigations of Enron and Toyota; o Designed and implemented media strategy, including press releases, senators’ statements, and interviews with reporters; and o Received a Congressional Staffer of the Year award from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
• Four years as a member of The Wilderness Society’s litigation team, working on court cases that either challenged or defended environmental regulations under the Administrative Procedure Act.
• Additional experience as the senior staff to the Colorado House Minority Leader, private law practice, and voting rights attorney for a pro-democracy advocacy organization.
• Won a statewide court injunction (including two appeals, the second one published) to stop violations of due process rights set by government policy.
Morrissey has directly worked on transportation, national security, anti-competitive business practices, consumer fraud, product safety, vehicle safety, energy markets, federal lands, climate change, endangered species, energy regulation, and voting rights. Morrissey used the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) to challenge and defend federal regulations.
During his journalism career, Morrissey wrote detailed articles for Washington DC's policy experts about banking and financial services, telecommunications regulation, employment and labor, regulation of medical devices and pharmaceuticals, the health insurance industry, education, student loans, appropriations and budget reconciliation, taxes, and trade agreements.
Morrissey’s journalism experience and instincts guide him in drafting statements and speeches with lines that reporters will actually quote in their stories. One of his former staff directors called Morrissey “a gifted communicator.”
Morrissey specializes in working with complicated numbers, whether Enron tax shelters or writing about a complicated scheme to fund Amtrak by altering the tax depreciation schedules for freight railroad equipment dating back to the 1940s.
Morrissey has used GIS mapping to track wildlife corridors through public lands and to map polling precincts with the longest wait times based upon millions of lines of cell phone data. He can employ those statistical and mapping skills to frame and illustrate your public policy challenge.
Morrissey earned a Certificate of International Trade from the World Trade Center of Colorado, covering trade law, policy, and practices. Morrissey is the author of From Cottonwood and Smithfield, 450-page book tracing the history of the United States through the stories and personal letters of four American families from Idaho and North Carolina. (Use the coupon code on the BookBaby web page for 50 percent off.)
Morrissey wrote more than 2,000 articles as a reporter covering Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court. He brings a journalist's instinct to public relations strategy.
Morrissey argued before a state Court of Appeals that a state-sponsored policy and practice violated 14th Amendment due process rights. The case resulted in a statewide court injunction prohibiting the policy and practice.
Morrissey worked as a counsel and professional staff member for the United States Senate Commerce Committee. Pictured with Chairman Ernest "Fritz" Hollings and his wife, Peatsy.
Morrissey (back middle) prepared senators for high-profile hearings, including the investigation of Enron.
Morrissey worked on litigation teams to protect national monuments (Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah above) and to challenge or defend federal regulation of environmentally sensitive public lands.
Morrissey (upper right) in the office of White House Press Secretary Michael McCurry (right foreground). UPI Reporter Helen Thomas is seated on the other side of the desk.
Morrissey (right) covering House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Morrissey covered the legislative and policy agenda of the Clinton White House for two years.
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