Matthew P. Downer is currently in his third year at Vanderbilt University Law School, where he serves as the Executive Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. Upon graduation, he will clerk for Judge Amul Thapar on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky and then for Judge Raymond Kethledge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Prior to law school, he earned his A.B. in Government from Harvard University in 2007 and then served four years in the United States Marine Corps, deploying to Afghanistan in 2010 and attaining the rank of Captain. He lives with his wife and two children in Nashville, Tennessee.