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Orange County

T(949) 851-5453

Education

  • J.D., magna cum laude, Brigham Young University, J. Reuben Clark Law School

  • B.S., University of Utah

Bar Admissions

  • California

Memberships

  • Boy Scouts of America – Orange County Council

  • Commercial Real Estate Development Association (NAIOP)

  • J. Rueben Clark Law Society – Orange County Chapter

  • Orange County Economic Think Tank

  • Urban Land Institute (ULI)

Matthew R. Fogt

Partner

Matt is a multidimensional dealmaker. He combines land use, real estate, environmental, natural resource, and energy law knowledge with business acumen, negotiation skills, and rigor to address California real estate development projects from all angles. He works to get the best terms and provisions in land use entitlements and real estate transactions while managing client investment and project constraints, and takes the necessary steps to ensure his clients’ developments can proceed in a timely manner, following acquisition.

Efficiency and Value

The breadth of Matt’s experience provides unique efficiency and value for serious developers. Clients such as Rockefeller Group, Five Point Communities, Irvine Company, Kilroy Realty, Goodman, Regent Properties, MBK, and dozens more public and private entities rely on Matt’s multiple talents when acquiring, financing, entitling, developing, or redeveloping a broad range of asset types—from master-planned communities, commercial properties (office, industrial, retail), apartments, renewable energy facilities, and mixed-use projects, to airports, resource extraction, self-storage, and auto dealerships.

Full-service and Strategy

Matt advises clients on a broad range of issues including the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), state and federal resource permits, subdivision mapping, public finance, affordable housing, environmental restrictions, impact fee disputes, utility service, eminent domain, construction and consultant agreement, conservation easements, and development agreements, to name a few. He also regularly advises clients regarding prevailing wage issues and complex CC&Rs and easements. Matt is skilled at public hearings and working with government agencies to obtain necessary approvals for his clients' projects.

Personal Interests

Matt resides in Irvine with his wife and five children. He volunteers with the Boy Scouts of America and his church's youth program. He is also a coach for youth soccer, football, and softball teams.

Prior to law school, Matt worked for the United States Forest Service on planning issues. During law school, Matt was an editor on the Brigham Young University Law Review, President of the Natural Resource Law Society, Civil Chair of the Government and Politics Legal Society, a counselor in the Academic Success Program, and a pupil in the American Inns of Court.

During law school, Matt externed for the Honorable Matt B. Durrant of the Utah Supreme Court, the Honorable Bruce S. Jenkins of the United States District Court for the District of Utah, and for the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Utah.

During college, Matt took a two-year break to volunteer as a Spanish-speaking missionary in eastern Washington State, where he worked primarily with migratory farm workers and Native American communities.

Accolades

  • Named the Best Lawyers’ Orange County - Land Use and Zoning Law "Lawyer of the Year" (2025)
  • Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America (2022 - 2025)
  • Selected for inclusion in Southern California Rising Stars by Super Lawyers (2010 - 2018)

Efficiency and Value

The breadth of Matt’s experience provides unique efficiency and value for serious developers. Clients such as Rockefeller Group, Five Point Communities, Irvine Company, Kilroy Realty, Goodman, Regent Properties, MBK, and dozens more public and private entities rely on Matt’s multiple talents when acquiring, financing, entitling, developing, or redeveloping a broad range of asset types—from master-planned communities, commercial properties (office, industrial, retail), apartments, renewable energy facilities, and mixed-use projects, to airports, resource extraction, self-storage, and auto dealerships.

Full-service and Strategy

Matt advises clients on a broad range of issues including the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), state and federal resource permits, subdivision mapping, public finance, affordable housing, environmental restrictions, impact fee disputes, utility service, eminent domain, construction and consultant agreement, conservation easements, and development agreements, to name a few. He also regularly advises clients regarding prevailing wage issues and complex CC&Rs and easements. Matt is skilled at public hearings and working with government agencies to obtain necessary approvals for his clients' projects.

Personal Interests

Matt resides in Irvine with his wife and five children. He volunteers with the Boy Scouts of America and his church's youth program. He is also a coach for youth soccer, football, and softball teams.

Prior to law school, Matt worked for the United States Forest Service on planning issues. During law school, Matt was an editor on the Brigham Young University Law Review, President of the Natural Resource Law Society, Civil Chair of the Government and Politics Legal Society, a counselor in the Academic Success Program, and a pupil in the American Inns of Court.

During law school, Matt externed for the Honorable Matt B. Durrant of the Utah Supreme Court, the Honorable Bruce S. Jenkins of the United States District Court for the District of Utah, and for the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Utah.

During college, Matt took a two-year break to volunteer as a Spanish-speaking missionary in eastern Washington State, where he worked primarily with migratory farm workers and Native American communities.

Accolades

  • Named the Best Lawyers’ Orange County - Land Use and Zoning Law "Lawyer of the Year" (2025)
  • Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America (2022 - 2025)
  • Selected for inclusion in Southern California Rising Stars by Super Lawyers (2010 - 2018)
  • Rockefeller Group. Several complicated land assemblages and development projects for large logistic centers.
  • Regent Properties. Acquisition, development, and disposition of several master planned communities and mixed-use projects throughout California.
  • Five Point Communities. Acquisition, development, and disposition of several communities throughout California.
  • Kilroy Realty. Acquisition, development, and disposition of several office and mixed-use projects throughout California.
  • Amonix. Acquisition and development of several solar facilities throughout the western United States.
  • Shea Homes/Standard Pacific Homes. Approval by several federal, state, and local agencies of a conservation easement on more than 600 acres of land on a former oil field.
  • AvalonBay Communities. Acquisition of several multi-family communities in California.
  • Developers. Represented PLC Land Company, Rockpoint Group, Starwood Capital, and Fieldstone Communities in connection with the development and disposition of the Monrovia Nursery Property located in Azusa, California.
  • Blackstone. $39 billion acquisition of Equity Office Properties Trust (at that point the largest owner of office space in the U.S. other than the Federal Government).
  • Abengoa Solar. $1.2 billion loan guarantee with the Department of Energy to build the Mojave Solar Project.
  • MBK Homes. Acquisition, development, and disposition of several multi-family and single-family communities.
  • City Ventures. Acquisition, development, and disposition of several communities throughout California.
  • Irvine Company. CC&Rs and easements with respect to several of its commercial and residential properties.
  • Great Far East. Acquisitions and development of a complex mixed-use site.

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