Matthew is a barrister practising in commercial, industrial and public law. According to the ICJ, he has worked almost full time over the past two years providing pro bono legal assistance to asylum seekers, including numerous actions to facilitate medical evacuations from Nauru, the site of Australia’s offshore immigration detention facility, and appearing on their behalf in the High Court of Australia.

He also lectures in public law and refugee law in the Juris Doctor course at the University of Melbourne's Law School.

The John Gibson Award is given to a candidate who has ‘distinguished him or herself by advancing and promoting human rights and/or refugee issues in the public domain or the legal sphere by positively and effectively advocating the interests of refugees, asylum seekers and/or sections of the community in need of assistance by reference to their human rights'.