Matt Hurt joined Dawson & Sodd, LLP as a partner in April 2011. Prior to joining Dawson & Sodd, Matt practiced at Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, LLP (Locke Lord) in Dallas from 2001 until 2011.

Matt graduated magna cum laude from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 1996. While at Texas A&M, Matt was nominated by the Department of Civil Engineering for Outstanding Student in the College of Engineering in 1996. Matt graduated in the Texas A&M Engineering Scholars Program. Matt worked in the engineering field for 1 1/2 years before attending law school. Matt worked in engineering research at Texas A&M and then worked for Garcia & Associates Engineering, Inc., a civil engineering consulting firm in Fort Worth.

Matt graduated magna cum laude from Texas Tech University School of Law in 2001. During law school, Matt earned the highest grade in three classes: Torts, Products Liability, and Legal Writing. Matt was President of the Texas Aggie Bar Association, served on the Board of Barristers, and was on the Texas Tech Law Review. Matt and his mock-trial partner won the Texas Tech School of Law mock trial competition during their third year of law school.

While at Locke Lord, Matt practiced in several areas of civil litigation including antitrust, environmental, construction defect, corporate and business litigation, corporate fraud, personal injury, wrongful death (plaintiff and defense side), intellectual property, and general commercial litigation. Matt was named a Rising Star in the practice of Construction Litigation by Texas Monthly Magazine in 2005.

For the past several years, Matt has used his engineering and construction background primarily in the area of condemnation and eminent domain. At Locke Lord, Matt worked in representing landowners and condemnors in numerous condemnation cases. On the landowner side, Matt worked on several cases including two recent trial victories in Dallas County:

(1) Cause No. CC-07-12028-E, State of Texas v. State Street Bank & Trust Co. and Brinker Int’l Payroll Co., L.P., in County Court at Law No. 5, Dallas County, Texas (condemnation impacting the Brinker corporate headquarters as part of the I-635 widening in Dallas), with a final judgment in the amount of $3,747,651.27; appeal to Dallas Court of Appeals, filed by the State of Texas, is pending (Appeal Cause No. 05-10-00306-CV);

(2) Cause No. CC-08-08424-E, State of Texas v. Rodger A. Johnson, et al. in County Court at Law No. 5, Dallas County, Texas (condemnation for SH 183 widening in Irving, Texas) with a final judgment in the amount of $3,123,125.90; it is expected that the State of Texas will appeal this judgment to the Dallas Court of Appeals.

Matt is licensed in Texas and Colorado. Matt is admitted to practice in all of the state courts of Texas, and the following federal courts: Northern, Eastern, Western, and Southern Districts of Texas, and the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.