Sutliff & Stout: Childhood Friends From a West Texas Courthouse, Both Board Certified

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.

Graham Sutliff and Hank Stout became friends at age four, playing in the halls of the Tom Green County Courthouse in San Angelo. Decades later, the childhood friends run a Houston-headquartered injury firm where both founding partners — not one — hold Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification in Personal Injury Trial Law, a credential fewer than 2 percent of Texas trial lawyers ever earn.

At a Glance

Career History

Graham Sutliff graduated summa cum laude from the University of Mississippi School of Law and practiced at Vinson & Elkins — one of Texas’s largest defense-side firms — before co-founding the plaintiffs’ practice in 2007. Hank Stout graduated from South Texas College of Law, where he served on Law Review. Both grew up in San Angelo, both have been named Texas Super Lawyers every year since 2012 (a 13-year consecutive run as of 2026), and both are Million Dollar Advocates Forum members and Texas Bar Foundation Fellows. The firm’s roster also includes Matthew Ploeger, a Stanford Law graduate with a Ph.D. from the University of Texas who clerked for Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht.

Practice Concentration

The firm handles car accidents, commercial truck crashes, motorcycle accidents, construction and workplace injuries, and wrongful death cases across Texas from its Houston headquarters and three satellite offices. All cases are on contingency, with free consultations offered seven days a week.

Track Record

The $13.3 million verdict’s zero-offer backstory is the kind of detail that illustrates why trial-readiness matters in settlement negotiations. The aggregate figure is the firm’s own claim and could not be independently itemized by this research. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case.

Client Voice

Attributed reviews describe respectful treatment and consistent case communication, with one 2023 truck-collision client crediting Hank Stout and his case worker by name for staying on top of the case from the first office visit. The firm states a 99% success rate on accepted cases — a figure disclosed here as the firm’s own claim, and one inherently shaped by which cases a contingency firm chooses to accept. This research did not surface a pattern of negative reviews or disciplinary findings against either partner.

Beyond the Courtroom

In 2025 the firm rebuilt its website into a free public legal-reference resource covering negligence, comparative fault, medical documentation, and settlement valuation — an educational approach the partners describe as a classroom rather than a billboard.

Recognition

Both Graham Sutliff and Hank Stout are Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization — making this one of the few firms in this directory’s Houston coverage where every founding partner independently holds the state’s certification in the firm’s core practice area. Both have also been named Texas Super Lawyers continuously since 2012. Certification requires a minimum of five years of practice, three years of substantial involvement in the specialty, peer evaluation, and a written examination.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Texas personal injury claims generally carry a two-year statute of limitations under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003. Texas Transportation Code § 545.425 prohibits texting while driving, and violations are frequently cited as contributing factors in crash reports — relevant to the distracted-driving cases this firm handles. Texas follows a modified comparative-fault rule under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 33: a claimant found more than 50% responsible for their own injury recovers nothing, and a claimant at 50% or below has recovery reduced by their own percentage of fault. None of this is legal advice and does not account for the specific facts of any individual case; consult a licensed Texas attorney about your situation.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Dual founding-partner TBLS certification is the standout, objectively verifiable differentiator here — many strong Houston firms have one certified partner or none. A defense-side pedigree (Vinson & Elkins) converted to plaintiffs’ work, a unanimous eight-figure Harris County verdict against a zero-dollar offer, and a 13-year unbroken Super Lawyers run all add checkable substance.

The honest limitations: the firm’s headline “$1 billion” and “99% success rate” figures are its own claims that this research could not independently itemize or audit, and success-rate statistics at contingency firms always reflect case selection as much as case outcomes. Prospective clients should weigh the verified credentials most heavily.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was researched and written independently by Awesome Attorneys in August 2026 without the participation, sponsorship, or payment of Sutliff & Stout, Injury & Accident Law Firm. Primary sources: the firm’s own website (sutliffstout.com), including both partners’ biographies and practice pages. Independent verification: March 2026 press coverage of the firm’s 13th consecutive Texas Super Lawyers selection confirming both partners’ TBLS certifications; Elite Lawyer attorney profile; third-party review platforms for attributed client accounts. Statutes cited in the Texas Legal Backdrop section were verified against the Texas Constitution and Statutes database (statutes.capitol.texas.gov).

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal-directory publisher. This profile was not paid for by Sutliff & Stout, and inclusion in our editorial coverage cannot be purchased. Our methodology and editorial standards are applied consistently across all firms we cover.