About Matt Tourtlotte

Matt describes his journey as a Billings personal injury attorney.

Early Career

I moved to Montana in 1995, shortly after graduating from Gonzaga University in Spokane Washington. I started law school at the University of Montana in 1996 and graduated in 1999. I began my legal career working as a law clerk, taking the opportunity to improve my research and writing skills. At that point in time, I had my job, a little red truck, and my dog River.

A year later, I moved to Billings, Montana, and met my wife Shanna. We moved to Great Falls, for a short period of time but later returned to Billings where I joined the Brown Law Firm as an associate attorney in 2002. There was no shortage of good work to be had at Brown Law Firm and I spent the next several years of my career litigating complex insurance bad faith claims, catastrophic injury claims, and construction/design defect claims. In 2009 I became a shareholder with the Brown Law Firm and continued to build my litigation practice over the next five years. During the twelve years I was with the firm, my areas of practice included insurance bad faith & complex insurance coverage claims, workers compensation bad faith claims, catastrophic injury claims, wrongful death claims, construction defect claims, property damage claims, defective product & product liability claims, and environmental damage & pollution claims. Most of the claims I litigated over the time period included claims for damages exceeding one million dollars or more.

Starting Tourtlotte Law Firm, PLLC

In 2014 after having been with Brown Law Firm for more than twelve years, I decided that I had reached a point in my career where I needed to expand my horizons beyond the constraints of the Firm’s defense focused practice. With much deliberation and some uncertainty and trepidation, I resigned my partnership with the firm that had felt like a second home for the past twelve years and set off on my own to open the doors of the Tourtlotte Law Firm, PLLC.

I enjoy my new practice. Going out on my own has allowed me the freedom to engage a practice that is more challenging and more rewarding than the practice I’d built and become accustomed to over the past twenty years. As a practitioner with twenty years of extensive litigation experience behind me, I look forward to continuing my work as a litigation attorney in Montana ‘s State and Federal Courts. My clients will receive the value of my work experience, the dedication I’ve shown to working hard and the respect that I have earned from my peers and colleagues around the state and region.

Hobbies & Interests

When I’m not busy working at my law practice, you will likely find me busy at home or afield with my beautiful wife Shanna and our wonderful children. We are an active bunch. The kids play several sports and are involved in many other activities. Shanna and I find ourselves pleased to ferry them about to this practice or that game. When we get out of town, we like to enjoy Montana’s outdoor spaces. We enjoy all kinds of outdoor activities and sports. There are skiing and sledding trips during the winter, hunting and fishing trips in the fall and camping, hiking, and boating adventures in the spring and summer. My family and I love Montana and my law firm is dedicated to making Montana safer for families and people just like us who love to live, play and work in our great state.