Matthew W. McMurtrey focuses his practice exclusively on probate litigation, with a particular emphasis on trusts and estates. His practice includes litigation at all levels of California's judicial system. He has successfully tried matters before the Probate Department of the Superior Court and has also handled appeals before several districts of the California Court of Appeal, resulting in multiple published appellate decisions.

Mr. McMurtrey serves as an advocate for a spectrum of clients, including high-net-worth institutions and individuals seeking to defend their claims and enforce their rights. His result-oriented approach offers each client an honest, unbiased, and realistic assessment of his or her case.

Representative examples of Mr. McMurtrey's practice include prosecuting and defending will and trust contests, pursuing creditor's claims in decedents' estates, seeking interpretation of wills and trusts, and prosecuting and defending surcharge claims against trustees. Mr. McMurtrey has successfully represented a trustee petitioner at trial, and respondent on appeal, in an action to determine that her efforts to reform a trust to correct a drafting error would not be a contest. In another case, he successfully defended a trustee against a surcharge petition and obtained court approval of the trustee's voluminous accounting (approximately 5,000 pages) based on the Uniform Prudent Investor Act.

An active member of the legal community, Mr. McMurtrey is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a peer-elected organization committed to maintaining excellence in the trust and estate legal field and to continually improving the practice of trust and estate law. 

He previously served as Chair of the Executive Committee for the California Lawyer's Association Trusts and Estates Section (TEXCOM) as well as former Chair of TEXCOM's Litigation Subcommittee. He was also the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Trusts and Estates Quarterly, a publication of the Trusts and Estates Section of the California Lawyer's Association, Additionally, Mr. McMurtrey was a former trustee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and served as Chair of the Executive Committee’s Trusts and Estates Law Section. 

Mr. McMurtrey is recognized as a “Notable Practitioner” by Chambers and Partners for High Net Worth Private Wealth Disputes, the world's leading legal ranking guide. He has also been named to Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers list for Probate Litigation, and is ranked by Southern California Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers for Trusts & Estates Litigation.

Mr. McMurtrey obtained his J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, and his B.A. from the University of California, Riverside, where he graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.