Matthew Yarbrough

Partner

Practices

Overview

Matthew Yarbrough is a Partner in Buchalter’s Dallas office and co-leads the firm’s AI, Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Group. Yarbrough is an internationally recognized trial lawyer and legal advisor with more than 30 years of experience in Intellectual property and commercial litigation, government enforcement investigations, and white-collar criminal cases. A former Assistant U.S. Attorney, he led the Department of Justice’s first trial task force dedicated to prosecuting cybercrime and criminal intellectual property cases in the Northern District of Texas, where he won outstanding trial lawyer awards from both the FBI and DOJ. Since leaving DOJ, he has appeared on Nightline with Ted Koppel, CNN, and FOX networks; and his cases have been profiled in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and numerous other periodicals and programs. In private practice, he has conducted more than 2,000 internal corporate investigations and is widely recognized for helping employers and companies navigate complex legal, compliance, and cyber challenges in the age of AI.

Representative Cases & Experience:

Yarbrough’s expertise, experience and trials are in four primary practice areas of law: (1) Government Investigations & White Collar; (2) Intellectual Property Litigation; (3) Data Privacy & Cybersecurity; and (4) Commercial Litigation.

Significant Case Representations:

Since 1996, lead investigative, trial and/or advisor on over 2,000+ privacy, cybersecurity and data breach incidents in the United States and internationally.
Prosecuted the first data intercept and voice communications wiretap of a coordinated hacker organization criminal ring in US history, US v. Phone masters (NDTX).
Acted as lead prosecutor in one of the largest ever theft of trade secrets cases brought under the Federal Economic Espionage Act, US v. Tejas (NDTX)
Acted as lead prosecutor in Operation “Seek & Keep,” resulting in the take down of the largest alien smuggling operation in US history, US v Shetty, aka Nick Diaz (NDTX).
Successfully defended a multi-international food industry corporation indicted by the DOJ as part of an alleged corporate conspiracy to smuggle illegal aliens into the US, defeating the US Attorney’s Office at criminal trial, US v Tyson’s Chicken (NDTX).

IP Litigation: Trade Secret, Patent, Trademark, Copyright and DMCA Experience

Carbone’s v. Carbone, successfully brought trademark action against Carbone for trademark infringement and fraud upon The United States Patent & Trademark Office (NDTX)
Miss USA v. The Pageant Guy Miss Texas USA, successfully brought trademark action against The Pageant Guy Miss Texas USA for trademark infringement and fraud upon The United States Patent & Trademark Office (NDTX)
Acted as co-lead counsel for Alcatel USA & France in trade secret theft and misappropriation of software and Internet tehnology against Cisco resulting in multimillion award for client. Alcatel v. Cisco (NDCA & EDTX)
Acted as lead prosecutor in the largest theft of trade secret cases prosecuted under the Economic Espionage Act (EEA) involving the theft of intellectual property via the hacking of a major US manufacture of turbine engines and sale of embargoed oil gas machinery to Iran. US v. Tejas (NDTX).
Represented large audio products manufacture and executed a civil search warrant and seizure of counterfeit goods, obtained a permanent injunction and judgment of $1.25 million in trademark infringement case. Bose Corp. v. Vertigo Online (SONY).
Represented large enterprise software company and obtained civil search and seizure order, and with U.S. Marshalls conducted raid to seize evidence. Obtained consent judgment of $1 million and permanent injunction for copyright infringement action arising from the circumvention of encryption measures that controlled access to copyrighted material under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). BMC Software v. CrabbyHacker.com (SDTX).
Obtained $4.7 million jury verdict for false advertising under the Langham Act and claims of misappropriation of business method in a case arising from the defendants’ palming off of plaintiffs works in NOE Inc. v. Rainforest Creations (EDTX).

Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Experience

Acted as lead prosecutor in US v. Phone Masters, largest unauthorized access of US and International telecommunications companies and phone carriers by an organized group of hackers known as the PhoneMasters.
Acted as lead prosecutor in US v. GI0balHell, largest hack against US Internet Service Providers (ISPs) by an organized criminal group of hackers known as GI0balHell.
Established and created the Texas Internet Bureau, one of the first state-based cybersecurity and privacy agencies dedicated to stopping cybercrimes and Internet fraud at the request of US Senator John Cornyn, then Texas Attorney General.
Acted as lead trial counsel in DHS-Excel v. TTS, involving claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) in a civil context concerning the hacking of client’s computer system by a business competitor resulting in an award of $10 million in damages for client.
Lead counsel representing plaintiff enterprise software company BMC against third party consultant in a hacking case involving civil ex parte search warrant and claims concerning theft of trade secrets, Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and trademark, BMC Software v. The Crabby Hacker (SDTX).
Acted as lead counsel in representing virtual payment industry client, involving claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) in a civil context concerning the alleged hacking of client’s computer system and theft of IP by a business competitor.
Advised clients on FTC, OCR, SEC and state Attorney General (including multistate taskforce) investigations and enforcement actions for alleged data security and privacy violations.
Advised clients on managing FTC Consent Orders and CIDs in connection with data security incidents.
Advised major health care providers and health plans on all aspects of HITECH security breaches, including OCR and state enforcement.
Lead trial counsel for Plaintiff in False Advertising and Lanham Act case involving the theft of marketing and advertising materials leading to a multi-million dollar trial verdict for client, NOE v. RCI (EDTX).
Advised numerous major retailers, financial institutions and other companies on proactive cybersecurity readiness, including developing and conducting full-scale tabletop (Executive Mock Data Breach) exercises for C-suite executives and boards of directors.
Advised numerous major retailers on security breaches resulting from criminal tampering of POS terminals and ATMs, including FBI and secret service involvement, forensic investigations, breach notification and PR efforts surrounding crisis management.
Counseled numerous technology companies (both as publishers and advertisers) on data collection and sharing issues, including online behavioral advertising and Big Data initiatives, collection and use of geolocation data, and EU-US Privacy Shield certification.
Counseled major retail and consumer goods companies on privacy issues associated with the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) and data collection from mobile devices.
Advised multiple clients on privacy, monitoring and surveillance issues under federal, state and international laws and prepared related customer and HR policies including BYOD.
Conducted comprehensive privacy and information security policy assessments of major US gaming, retail, entertainment, hospitality and consumer goods companies, including extensive data flow mapping, implementation of multiple privacy policies, information governance, security and records management procedures.
Developed and implemented comprehensive global records management program for one of world’s largest technology outsourced consultancy firms, including preparation and implementation of data security and privacy policies and procedures, numerous records retention schedules.

Representative Internal Corporate Investigations Against Government Entities and “White-Collar” Matters:

Successfully defended large international Chicago consulting firm against the TX AG’s office, TX Rangers & TX DPS criminal charges concerning the non-compliance with regulatory investigative requirements regarding large US consulting firms resulting in a dismissal of all allegations and enforcement matters. State of Texas v Navigant.
lead prosecutor & architect of DOJ’s international operation “Seek & Keep.” Resulted in the take-down and conviction of the largestillegal international alien smuggling-ring in US history. The first wiretap under the FBI-INS statutory authority by DOJ.
“Tyson’s Chicken Case” – Successfully represented Tyson’s and defeated the US Attorney’s Office at Trial in defending corporate HR Manager indicted by the DOJ as part of a nation-wide conspiracy by the alleged Board of Director’s to smuggle and employ illegal aliens. US v. DeLeon (NDTX).
Represented victim corporation FedEx/Kinko’s in hacking-ring by Chinese-Hackers and coordinated with US Attorney’s Office SDNY that ultimately led to the successful criminal prosecution of hacker master mind, US v Ju Ju Jiang (SDNY).
Represented and defended largest retail franchise chain investigated by the DOJ as part of an alleged corporate conspiracy to employ, harbor, smuggle, and traffic in illegal aliens in the US. (EDNY).
Represented 7-Eleven as a corporate victim in federal court in the MDFL against a group of franchisees concerning Point of Sale (POS) theft and money laundering that resulted in the successful seizure of real property. 7-Eleven v. George (MDFL). In parallel criminal case, successfully resulted in the prosecution of franchisees by the state of Florida against franchisees and the return of millions of stolen proceeds. State of Florida v Bailey, et. al.

Admissions

Texas

The Best Lawyers in America® in the area of Electronic Discovery and Information Management Law; Litigation – Intellectual Property, 2026-2027

Commercial Litigation & Business Disputes
Corporate Fraud
Government Investigations

Bar Admissions

Areas of Focus

Representative Cases & Experience:

Significant Case Representations:

IP Litigation: Trade Secret, Patent, Trademark, Copyright and DMCA Experience

Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Experience

Representative Internal Corporate Investigations Against Government Entities and “White-Collar” Matters:

Admissions

Education

Buchalter Attorneys Named 2027 Best Lawyers in America

Buchalter Attorneys Named 2026 Best Lawyers in America