Matthew D. Manning

Matthew Dwayne Manning was a family law attorney in Las Vegas, Nevada, and a partner at the firm Hofland Manning. A native of Roanoke, Virginia, he took pride in his Southern heritage. He graduated from law school at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and began practicing law in Nevada in 1998.

Manning was known for his passionate, aggressive advocacy on behalf of his clients, an approach one colleague compared to that of a pitbull. Local family law attorney Rhonda Mushkin, who mentored him for several years earlier in his career, remembered him as someone who really fought for his clients and went the extra mile to do the very best for them. Colleague John Eccles, who first opposed Manning in court and later joined his firm, recalled that he was difficult to beat because he worked his cases very hard. In the courtroom he was recognizable for the seersucker shirts, big belt buckles and ostrich-leather cowboy boots he favored.

Manning died on June 3, 2005, at the age of 34, following a motorcycle accident on U.S. 95 in Las Vegas. He was remembered by fellow attorneys and court officials as a formidable and respected figure in the difficult field of family law - as Eccles put it, someone whom colleagues may have loved or hated, but whom everyone seemed to respect.