Matthew Lifflander is an experienced author. In 1979, W.W. Norton & Company published his first book, Final Treatment, The File on Dr. X, an exciting tale of his personal involvement in a major multiple medical murder case.
His second book was published in September 2012 by the New York State University Press. The Impeachment of Governor Sulzer, a Story of American Politics, tells the tale of New York Governor William Sulzer, a popular congressman, who was inaugurated on January 1, 1913, and impeached and removed from office by October 17th because he defied the all-powerful Tammany Hall political machine. According to Lifflander, “It is a 100 year old political story that still resonates today with fascinating facts and famous characters.” Many of the decade old situations are still repeated in Albany and other state capitals.
Lifflander’s Op Ed pieces have appeared in the New York Times, the Albany Times-Union, the New York News, the New York Law Journal, the New York Sun, and other papers. His articles have been published by New York Archives Magazine, and the Journal of Privatization.
He began his legal career as Assistant Counsel to the Governor, serving at age 25 as the youngest person on the personal staff of Governor Averell Harriman.
Subsequently, Matt went into corporate practice with Hertz Rent-A-Car where he became Vice President and Chief International Counsel. After 9 years, he capped that career by establishing the Hertz Rent-A-Car franchise in the Soviet Union. He went behind the Iron Curtin to Moscow to sign it in 1969, a business “first” which made the front page of the New York Times.
From 1969 through 1972, he was Chairman of the Uniworld Organization, headquartered in London and New York City, establishing American franchise businesses abroad, and was also President of the International Division of International Industries, Inc.
Matt Lifflander has been a successful lawyer for more than 50 years. He is Counsel to SNR Denton LLP, a worldwide firm with offices on every continent and among the largest in the USA, and he is also the Managing Partner of Lifflander & Reich LLP, a litigation boutique. His private practice encompasses the business of public and family corporations and the interest of significant individuals. His clients retain him for corporate counseling, litigation, negotiations, and public affairs.
His subsequent political career involved high level positions in the presidential campaigns of Senator Ed Muskie in 1972 and for Senator Henry M. Jackson in 1976. He served as Finance Chairman for the New York State Democratic Party from 1972 to 1974 and again in 1983.
Lifflander earned nationwide attention as an investigator of medical misconduct as Chief Counsel to the New York State Assembly’s Medical Practice Task Force during 1977 and 1978, when he uncovered surgical equipment salesmen doing surgery and delved into a number of failures of the health care system, including alteration of medical records, ghost surgery, improper credentials and the conspiracy of silence to protect incompetent colleagues, leading to corrective legislation.
Other governmental service includes Counsel to the Joint Select Committee on Election Law Reform of the New York State Legislature (1973-1974), which created the first campaign finance reform legislation in New York; Special Counsel to the Speaker of the New York State Assembly (1975-1978), during which service he was credited with developing the legislation that led to the “I Love New York” campaign. He also served for five years (1969-1973) as Acting Village Justice in his Westchester County village of Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
Known among his clients and colleagues as a persuasive speaker and effective negotiator, Lifflander has made a number of appearances on nationwide television, including 60 Minutes, the Today Show, ABS’s Night Line, CNN’s Cross Fire, CBS This Morning, and Fox’s O’Reilly Factor, as well as a number of syndicated radio shows.
Lifflander is a long-time member of the Hudson River Museum’s Board of Trustees and was Chairman for seven years. Other memberships include: Business Executives for National Security, the University Club, the American, State, and New York City Bar Associations, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the New York State Magistrates Association, and, most significantly, The Legion of Reliable People, a secret society he founded in 1999 to honor people who always keep their word, no matter how difficult to do so.
Matt, who is divorced, has two married sons: Clay, a Dobbs Ferry resident, and Justin, who lives in Russia. He has 3 grandchildren. Matt is a resident of Hastings-on-Hudson.
