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Attorney Advertising. The information on this profile does not constitute legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is formed by reading it. Past results described do not guarantee similar outcomes; every case is different.
At a Glance
| Firm | Dawson & Sodd, PLLC |
| Roots | Predecessor firm co-founded 1938 by Matt “Mad Dog” Dawson; current PLLC established 2009 |
| Key attorneys | Jody Sodd McSpadden, Jason Sodd, Clint Schumacher, Hayley Ailshie Nanasi, B. Tyler Milton |
| Office | 8333 Douglas Avenue, Suite 380, Dallas, TX 75225 (also Corsicana, TX) |
| Focus | Eminent domain and condemnation — pipeline, power line, and utility easements; TxDOT highway takings; inverse condemnation |
| Who they represent | Landowners exclusively — never condemning authorities or utility/pipeline companies |
| Fee structure | Not publicly posted; free consultation offered |
Origin & Founder History
Dawson & Sodd traces its institutional roots to 1938, when Matt “Mad Dog” Dawson earned his Texas law license and co-founded the firm’s predecessor in Corsicana. Dawson went on to serve as Navarro County Bar Association President and a Director of the State Bar of Texas, and after 35 years in litigation became a professor at Baylor Law School, where he is credited with creating the modern iteration of the school’s Practice Court program — a detail that connects this small East Texas firm to a genuinely influential figure in Texas legal education.
The modern firm is led by Jody Sodd McSpadden, a Corsicana native whose eminent domain practice spans pipeline takings to major commercial condemnations, and who has been named to the Thomson Reuters Texas Super Lawyers list for eminent domain every year from 2022 through 2026. Jason Sodd’s practice centers on power line and pipeline condemnation cases and included work opposing the proposed Texas High-Speed Rail project’s use of eminent domain. The firm expanded from its Corsicana base to open a dedicated Dallas office at 8333 Douglas Avenue to serve North Texas landowners directly.
Practice Concentration
The firm describes its approach as a “Landowner First” philosophy and states it represents property owners exclusively in condemnation matters — individuals, ranchers, farmers, and business owners — never the condemning government agency, utility, or pipeline company on the other side of the table. Within eminent domain, the practice spans pipeline and power-line easement takings, TxDOT highway-expansion condemnations, and inverse condemnation claims, where a landowner initiates litigation because government action affected their property without a formal condemnation proceeding.
Track Record
The firm’s published case-results page (which notes that details are sometimes summarized or anonymized for confidentiality) includes a pipeline easement matter in which an initial offer of $199,507 for a partial taking was increased to a final net recovery of $1,500,000, and a TxDOT highway-widening case for a restaurant owner in which an initial offer of $460,000 was increased to a net recovery of $786,859. These are the firm’s own reported figures, presented as case-specific examples rather than typical or guaranteed outcomes; the firm’s own materials state that every case is different and past results do not predict future ones.
Client Voice
The firm’s marketing materials emphasize direct landowner testimonials tied to specific project types (pipeline, TxDOT, utility easement), but individually attributed, verifiable third-party reviews were limited in public search results at the time of this profile’s research. Awesome Attorneys did not locate independently hosted reviews (Google, Avvo, Martindale) with enough detail to quote directly and verify; Jody Sodd McSpadden does hold a 10/10 “Superb” Avvo rating, which reflects an aggregate client-and-peer scoring rather than an individual quoted review.
Beyond the Courtroom
The firm maintains an active case-results and educational content presence aimed at landowners navigating a condemnation notice for the first time, and Jody Sodd McSpadden was featured as Partner of the Month in Attorney at Law Magazine’s Greater Dallas edition in March 2018. The firm’s ties to rural Texas communities — Corsicana origins, agricultural and ranch clientele — run alongside its North Texas commercial condemnation work.
Recognition
Jody Sodd McSpadden has been named to the Thomson Reuters Texas Super Lawyers list for Eminent Domain in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026, and to the Texas Super Lawyers Rising Stars list in 2005–2007, 2014, and 2015 — a peer-review-based honor, not a paid award. These are attributed to Thomson Reuters as the conferring organization, not restated as an independent Awesome Attorneys assessment. No Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification in real estate or a related field was located for any attorney at the firm as of this profile’s research; eminent domain itself is not a distinct TBLS certification area in Texas.
Texas Legal Backdrop
Eminent domain in Texas is governed by Texas Property Code Chapter 21, which sets out the procedure a condemning authority must follow, including the requirement to make a bona fide offer before filing a condemnation petition. The Texas Landowner’s Bill of Rights, which the condemning authority must provide to the property owner, sets out entitlements including an independent appraisal, a hearing before special commissioners, and the right to challenge the taking in court. Inverse condemnation claims — where a landowner sues because government action damaged or restricted use of property without formal proceedings — are grounded in the takings clause of Article I, Section 17 of the Texas Constitution. None of this is legal advice; a landowner facing a specific notice or offer should consult counsel promptly given the short deadlines involved in the condemnation process.
Awesome Attorneys Assessment
Dawson & Sodd’s differentiator is depth within a narrow lane: the firm does not diversify into general real estate transactions, landlord-tenant work, or title closings — it is built around one adversarial relationship, landowner versus condemning entity, and its published case results and peer recognition are concentrated entirely in that space. For a landowner who has received a pipeline easement notice or a TxDOT taking letter, that specialization is exactly the credential worth weighing.
The honest limitation is the same specialization in reverse: this firm is not a fit for a landowner’s unrelated real estate transaction, a title dispute, or a construction defect claim. Its rural Corsicana roots and small-firm structure (a handful of named attorneys across two offices) also mean it operates at a different scale than a large commercial real estate practice — a trade-off that suits an individual landowner well but is worth naming for a corporate client evaluating firm capacity for a large multi-parcel matter.
Methodology & Sourcing
This profile was compiled from the firm’s own website (dawsonsodd.com), including attorney biography pages for Jason Sodd and Jody Sodd McSpadden, the firm’s published case-results page, its “About Us” and history pages, and third-party listings (Super Lawyers, Yelp, Martindale-Hubbell, FindLaw). Case-result figures and awards are the firm’s own published claims, attributed as such; Awesome Attorneys did not independently verify settlement amounts against court records or opposing-party confirmation.
Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice
This profile is an independent editorial article published by Awesome Attorneys. Awesome Attorneys does not endorse, recommend, or warrant any lawyer or law firm profiled on this site, and inclusion in this series is not paid placement. Facts in this profile were researched from public sources as described in the Methodology & Sourcing section and are current only as of the research date.