<\/p>\n
Steven Stodghill is pictured amongst his vast collection of Batman memorabilia, including this full-size mannequin from Germany, at his Dallas home, June 15, 2026. Stodghill, a commercial litigator and Texas Public Safety Commissioner, has the largest collection of the Caped Crusader in the Southwest — including a life-size Batman suit made of Kevlar (not pictured) that was custom-designed by DC Comics — modeled after the suit from The Dark Knight and given to him by his wife.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Steve\u00a0Stodghill\u00a0\u2014 aka Dallas\u2019 \u201cbillionaires\u2019 lawyer\u201d\u00a0\u2014 is having the time of his life at 65.<\/p>\n
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He and Tom Melsheimer, his 65-year-old courtroom alter ego for 33 years, just launched a mission to build out the Dallas stronghold for Atlanta-based multinational giant, King & Spalding LLP.<\/p>\n
Their move with 40 fellow partners and associates in tow is their fourth mass exodus\u00a0\u2014 this time mostly from the Uptown offices of international giant Winston & Strawn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The opportunity was just too sweet to pass up, Stodghill said in a recent interview at his sprawling estate in Preston Hollow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s safe to say that Dallas, from a legal market standpoint, is the hottest market in the nation. Smart folks run these big international law firms, and they figure out where the most fertile grounds are for expansions,\u201d Stodghill said. \u201cThat\u2019s why they hired us. I\u2019m the business development guy, and Tom\u2019s the trial assassin.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Balser, the King & Spalding executive in Atlanta who orchestrated the talent heist, said Stodghill is the perfect tie into the legal community. \u201cThat\u2019s far and away the most important piece of this whole puzzle for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bills $38.25 a minute<\/p>\n
As a commercial litigator, Stodghill specializes in high-stakes, noncriminal cases such as breach of contract, partnership disputes, intellectual property theft and fraud.<\/p>\n
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His rarefied clients\u00a0\u2014 deep-pocket corporations, sports teams, star players and really, really rich people\u00a0\u2014 currently fork out $2,295 an hour for his legal strategy. Last year, Stodghill says he personally billed about 2,400 hours for a cool $5.5 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a billionaire, but I\u2019ve represented 25 billionaires and Fortune 100 corporations over the years,\u201d Stodghill said.<\/p>\n
He spends his money on things most dear: family and friends, museum-quality fine art and historical artifacts, philanthropic efforts, Republican causes, and independent film production. He even makes occasional cameo movie appearances.<\/p>\n
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Steven Stodghill\u2019s vast collection of Batman memorabilia is pictured at his Dallas home, June 15, 2026. Stodghill, a commercial litigator and Texas Public Safety Commissioner, has the largest collection of the Caped Crusader in the Southwest.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Travel is a biggie. Stodghill has traveled to 95 countries on all seven continents with plans to hit the 100-country milestone in the next year.<\/p>\n
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He and his wife, Anne, and their 18-year-old son, Dash\u00a0\u2014 after American writer Dashiell Hammett\u00a0\u2014 live in a 14,000-square-foot, gated mansion on nearly two acres.<\/p>\n
But Batman is Stodghill\u2019s ultimate indulgence.<\/p>\n
He owns the nation\u2019s largest Caped Crusader collection\u00a0\u2014 more than 10,000 items, from comic books to a life-size Kevlar Batman suit like the one in The Dark Knight that Anne had made for him 15 years ago when they moved into their mansion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you get a guy who has everything, right?\u201d Anne said. \u201cI won Christmas that year.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Even his billionaire buddy, Mark Cuban\u00a0\u2014 who is still a client\u00a0\u2014 is awestruck. \u201cThe best thing is walking into his office and seeing all the Batman collectibles, lol,\u201d he said in a text. \u201cJust an unexplainable feeling. You have to see it to believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lasting relationships<\/p>\n
Stodghill has many names: Steve professionally,\u00a0Stodg to his friends, Stodgy to Anne, Pops to Dash. His 91-year-old mother, Patsy, who lives in Lakewood, is the only person who calls him Steven.<\/p>\n
Billionaire Todd Wagner, Cuban\u2019s business partner, has been Stodghill\u2019s constant best friend for 40 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve known Stodg since I was 25 years old, and we were newbie lawyers right out of law school,\u201d Wagner, 65, said in an interview from his home in Tampa. \u201cBoth of our lives have had a lot of interesting twists and turns.\u201d<\/p>\n
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They were the best men at each other\u2019s weddings. Their families recently traveled to Australia and New Zealand for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s upbeat. He\u2019s got charisma and personality,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cHe\u2019s just someone I really like to be around, and that\u2019s probably the highest compliment I can give because, look, all of us are jealous of our time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Accidental millionaire<\/p>\n
Wagner and Cuban put Stodghill on his path to personal riches.<\/p>\n
In 1994, Stodghill placed what he thought was a $15,000 sucker\u2019s bet on this fad called the internet\u00a0\u2014 a stretch for him since his capital was tied up launching his own firm with Mike Lynn and Melsheimer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Five years later, Wagner and Cuban sold their not-so-faddish company to Yahoo for a reported $5.7 billion. Stodghill\u2019s unexpected windfall was \u201cin the ballpark\u201d of $20 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cStodg is a great guy and a winner,\u201d Cuban said. \u201cHe does so much for so many people. He is smart. And he does a great job. You always want him on your side.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo both of them are billionaires, and I\u2019m still practicing law,\u201d Stodghill laughed.<\/p>\n
Dallas filmmaker Johnathan Brownlee, who doesn\u2019t have the same string series of zeros in his net worth, considers Stodghill one of his closest friends and describes him this way: \u201cStodg reads more than anyone I know, watches more films than I can count. He\u2019s a collector of people and is immensely generous.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the guy you want by your side when you go to battle, because you sure as hell don\u2019t want him on the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lockstep partners<\/p>\n
Stodghill and Melsheimer have been in the legal trenches together since they were in law school at the University of Texas.\u00a0Stodghill was a year behind because he took a gap year as a legislative aide in Washington, D.C., for Rockwall\u2019s Ralph Hall, the U.S. Representative for Texas\u2019s 4th congressional district and a Democrat at the time.<\/p>\n
In 1987, when they joined the big Dallas firm, Akin Gump, Melsheimer predicted they would be partners of their own firm someday. They\u2019ve been in tandem for 33 years.<\/p>\n
Their unshakable bond came in 1993, when they formed their law firm with Mike Lynn and had to fend for themselves, Melsheimer said. \u201cSteve and I used to joke that we didn\u2019t want to come in every day and say, \u2018Hey, have you finished the crossword or solved the Jumble today? \u2019 So we got out and hustled.<\/p>\n
Having that bond with someone when you\u2019re trying to meet payroll is something that\u2019s hard to match.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anne\u2019s wish list<\/p>\n
Early in her career as an employment lawyer, Anne wrote down what she hoped for in a life partner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted someone who was as comfortable riding on a horse as he was in black tie at the opera,\u201d she recalled. \u201cAfter Steve and I had been together for a couple of years, I ran across the list again and thought, \u2018Well, I\u2019ll be damned, this pretty much describes Steve Stodghill.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s it like to be his wife?<\/p>\n
\u201cHe makes me laugh every day,\u201d said Anne. \u201cThere\u2019s always something interesting going on. He always has a story.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHis obsessive need to collect things,\u201d Anne said, sitting on the main marble staircase, surveying her surroundings. \u201cWhile there\u2019s an infinite universe of things to collect, the amount of wallspace we have is finite. Sometimes the physics doesn\u2019t work out.\u201d<\/p>\n
She has her limits. There won\u2019t be a Batmobile.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would just be one more thing to take care of and where would we park it?\u201d she said. \u201cEvery time one comes on the market, multiple people ask, \u2018Aren\u2019t y\u2019all gonna get this for Steve? \u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018No. He doesn\u2019t need a Batmobile.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not so sure about that.<\/p>\n
Shedding 150 pounds<\/p>\n
Stodghill is half the man he was six years ago\u00a0\u2014 literally.<\/p>\n
His weight ballooned to 325 in 2020. He\u2019d resisted the repeated pleading of his internist, Dean Dimmitt at Baylor University Medical Center, to get gastric bypass surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was about to turn 60, and he said, \u2018Stodg, how many morbidly obese guys do you see walking around Dallas, Texas in their 80s?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
That got his attention. After the surgery, it took him about a year to shed the weight. Today, the 6-footer scales in daily at 170-ish.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anne Stodghill, Steve Stodghill at the Black-tie gala celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Neiman Marcus NorthPark and NorthPark Center Oct. 28, 2015.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Owen Kolasinski\/BFA.com<\/p>\n
\u201cLosing weight was like a silver bullet that cured all my ailments,\u201d Stodghill said. \u201cI log two miles on a treadmill at a level 15 incline every single day. My health is probably better now at age 65 than I was in my 40s because of exercise and eating better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSteve\u2019s one of the healthier people that I know,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cHe\u2019s done almost a 180-turn in the last decade. But here\u2019s the thing. We loved him when Steve was heavier, and we love him now, right? He\u2019s the same Steve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republican allies<\/p>\n
Stodghill and Gov. Greg Abbott have been trusted friends for decades.<\/p>\n
Abbott, who was a Texas Supreme Court justice 25 years ago, officiated the couple\u2019s wedding attended by 650 guests in the Barrel Vault of the Dallas Museum of Art.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anne jokes that the spoils from Broadcast.com paid for their over-the-top wedding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thanks to Abbott\u2019s back-to-back appointments, Stodghill is in his second six-year term as Texas Public Safety Commissioner, overseeing the state\u2019s largest law enforcement and safety agency of 13,000 employees.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a position Stodghill takes quite seriously.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two days after the Camp Mystic disaster a year ago, Stodghill was part of the official rescue and recovery team, surveying damage by car and helicopter.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also involved with border security with secret-level clearance from Homeland Security.<\/p>\n
The Stodghills host events and parties up to four times a week: meet-and-greets with celebrities, fundraisers for charities, gatherings for Purple Heart vets, recruits for his University of Texas Delta Tau Delta fraternity, family weddings, a black-tie dinner for their 25th anniversary and Republican fundraisers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Geoff Harper, his close associate for 33 years, says the only events he avoids are those Republican arm-twisters. \u201cMy wife would leave me over that.\u201d<\/p>\n
A bargain mansion<\/p>\n
Stodghill bought his family\u2019s two-story mansion and grounds 15 years ago for $4.5 million with a 1.5% interest mortgage. It had been vacant for two and a half years after a speculative builder went belly up in 2008.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was 51 and bought the house just before residential real estate rebounded,\u201d \u00a0he said. \u201cThe builder\u2019s timing was horrible. My timing was absolutely as perfect as it could get.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stodghill figures he could probably get nearly three times that if he put it on the market today\u00a0\u2014 which he has no intention of doing. He\u2019d have to get a warehouse.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An art deco French bed made in the 1920\u2019s and a painting by artist John Alexander (left) are pictured with other pieces in Steven Stodghill\u2019s Dallas home, June 15, 2026. Stodghill, a commercial litigator and Texas Public Safety Commissioner, is a collector of art and movies. He also has the largest collection of the Batman in the Southwest.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Oddly enough, the grand abode with themed rooms and a 28-seat movie theater actually feels like a place where a real family lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Roggi, their 11-year-old, giant Samoyed fur ball, rules the manor\u00a0\u2014 fittingly named after the legendary Viking king Ragnar Lothbrok.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every wall features museum-quality original paintings and photographs including an iconic Mao silkscreen by renowned pop artist Andy Warhol and David Yarrow\u2019s most famous photograph, The Wolf of Main Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His office is filled with photos of him with and star-studded celebrities like George Clooney, Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood and Robert\u00a0DeNiro.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Real-deal historical artifacts include his favorite, Doc\u00a0Holliday\u2019s black coat with a grazed bullet hole from the OK Corral shootout in Tombstone, Ariz. in 1881. The coat is incredibly small.\u00a0Holliday, who suffered from tuberculosis, weighed only 130 pounds.<\/p>\n
Stodghill is also particularly fond of a Davy Crockett Bowie knife, George Custer\u2019s travel desk and the megaphone that Wild Buffalo Bill used to introduce world-famous sharpshooter Annie Oakley.<\/p>\n
Batman hero worship<\/p>\n
But nothing is as dear to his collector\u2019s heart as the Caped Crusader.<\/p>\n
This idiosyncrasy isn\u2019t as idiotic as it might appear.<\/p>\n
As a boy, Stodghill was diagnosed with Legg-Calv\u00e9-Perthes, a rare medical disease that required an operation when he was 3. He was immobilized at home in a leg cast for six months.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad always read comic books growing up, and so he got me subscriptions to all the DC comics to read every day,\u201d Stodghill recalled as he gave a tour of his Batman Cave. \u201cI always liked Batman best because he was the superhero who had no superpowers. He had to rely on his own smarts, work ethic and creativity. Not only were all the supervillains terrified of him because he could beat any of them, but all the superheroes were terrified of him for the same reason.<\/p>\n
That easily translates into being an attorney, he said. \u201cThe equalizer in the practice of law or really any profession is work ethic. It\u2019s not just pure, innate talent. You don\u2019t have a lot of Perry Mason moments where someone has an epiphany and finds the answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast majority of problems can be solved if you figure out the right strategic path and the tactics that can get you to that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wagner said his best bro fits the Caped Crusader\u2019s part.<\/p>\n
\u201cBatman is a multi-layered character in the movies. So is Stodg,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cHe\u2019s so social and friends with everyone, but when he needs to go scorched earth for what he does for a living, he\u2019s more than willing to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melsheimer puts it this way: \u201cBeing photographed with celebrities and a Batman collector doesn\u2019t exactly scream high IQ, you know? But Steve\u2019s intelligence is really his superpower.
\u00a0
“He has the freedom to give the advice that he thinks is right, not the advice that he thinks will please the client. I have seen him be as aggressive as you can imagine when he needs to be.”<\/p>\n
Even has a Robin<\/p>\n
Harper is his Robin\u00a0\u2014 absolutely no slight intended. \u201cGeoff has been a lawyer for 30 years, super smart, super hard-working and a great litigator,\u201d Stodghilll said. \u201cHe\u2019s my go-to guy on most of my big cases.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Harper embraces the moniker.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had many opportunities to go elsewhere each time Steve\u2019s moved, but I\u2019ve always gone with him, including this time,\u201d Harper said. \u201cWhen I say that every client is a friend of his, they are. That\u2019s the way he\u2019s built his business\u00a0\u2014 trust and the assurance that you\u2019re getting Steve\u2019s and his team\u2019s full attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
So why did Stodghill rev up instead of slowing down?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m nowhere close to being done yet,\u201d Stodghill said. \u201cI\u2019m as busy and as engaged as I\u2019ve ever been in my whole career. In fact, I think I\u2019m a lot busier.
\u00a0\u00a0
“If I weren\u2019t practicing law at full speed, I would have to get a hobby or a Ph.D. or something to stay engaged. I\u2019ve had friends who\u2019ve retired, and then they just kinda faded into the woodwork.”<\/p>\n
And improving his golf game isn\u2019t high on his to-do list. He\u2019s been a member of the prestigious Dallas National for 20 years and is happily its worst golfer.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo play golf, you need to be two of three things\u00a0\u2014 fast, fun or good,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve got the first two covered.\u201d<\/p>\n
What does Anne think about this?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been so much fun to watch him energized and excited again,\u201d she said. \u201cMost people would not be starting the next phase of their career at 65. And he\u2019s just like, \u2018OK, let\u2019s do it.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
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Meet Steve Stodghill<\/p>\n
Age: 65
Born: Dallas
Titles: Partner, King & Spalding LLP; principal and co-founder, Last Rodeo Studios; Texas Public Safety Commissioner
Resides: Preston Hollow
Education: Skyline High School, 1979; bachelor of liberal arts with high honors, University of Texas, 1983; law degree, UT School of Law, 1987\u00a0
Personal: Married to Anne for 25 years. They have an 18-year-old son, Dash and an 11-year-old, giant Samoyed dog,\u00a0Roggi.
SOURCE: Steve Stodghill<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steven Stodghill is pictured amongst his vast collection of Batman memorabilia, including this full-size mannequin from Germany, at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-392325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}