Doug Gladden

Doug Gladden advocates on behalf of the wrongly convicted. Doug is a respected and formidable appellate advocate, trial lawyer, and policy expert. He has been Board Certified in Criminal Appellate Law since 2018. Of the more than 75,000 licensed attorneys in Texas, only 129 are Board Certified in this area.
 
A Georgia native, Doug got his Bachelor of Science degree, with honors, from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He earned his law degree, again with honors, from the University of Georgia School of Law.
 
Doug began his legal career as a prosecutor in El Paso, Texas. He quickly moved to Dallas, where he served as an appellate prosecutor in the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office for nearly 10 years. During that time, he was lead counsel for the state in 145 direct appeals, and he presented 27 oral arguments to the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas. He provided trial support in many high-profile cases, arguing complex motions, presenting expert testimony, and drafting jury charges. In 2016, he was named Appellate Prosecutor of the Year by the Dallas DA’s Office. In 2020, he was named a Prosecutor of the Year by the State Bar of Texas Criminal Justice Section. And in 2021, he was recognized both by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) with the Prosecutor Service Award and by Dallas County as an Employee of the Month.
 
Doug’s passion as an attorney has always been criminal-justice reform. In 2015, Doug helped the DA’s Office establish its annual Expunction Expo, which has now helped nearly 2,000 people clear their arrest records. Doug has also pushed for multiple legislative reforms. In 2021, he authored two laws that the Legislature passed: the Richard Miles Act, which requires law enforcement to turn over all evidence to prosecutors; and Bo’s Law, which requires police officers to keep their body-worn cameras on during an entire investigation.
 
Since 2022, Doug has practiced exclusively criminal defense, including pre-trial investigations, trials, appeals, writs, and expunctions. He has secured two not-guilty verdicts at trial, as well as countless dismissals and reduced charges for his clients. He is a member of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Association, where he serves on the Amicus Committee and also as a CLE speaker. He has served as a member of the Committee for a Qualified Judiciary in Dallas. As a recognized expert on jury-charge law, Doug has recently been appointed to serve a two-year term on the State Bar’s Criminal Pattern Jury Charge Committee.
 
When Doug isn’t working to save his clients or fix the criminal justice system, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two children, reading American History, fiction, and mystery novels, riding his Peloton, grilling, and curating his enormous collection of classical music.