Matthew Arnold, Dallas Criminal Attorney

Matthew Scott Arnold is a criminal defense attorney in the Dallas office of Dunham & Jones who has spent more than three decades in Texas criminal courts, first as a prosecutor and then as a defense lawyer. His practice is centered in Dallas County, and before joining the firm he tried cases across Dallas, Tarrant, and the surrounding counties. He has tried more than 100 jury trials and handled thousands of cases.

Mr. Arnold grew up in Dallas and graduated from Highland Park High School. His mother was a Dallas psychiatrist and his father practiced civil law, and he got his start in the legal field making copies of cases for his father at the SMU law library. He graduated with honors from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1991 with a degree in government (political science) and earned his law degree from St. Mary's University School of Law in 1993. During law school he played rugby for the San Antonio Rugby Football Club and interned with the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney's Office, where he tried his first felony case on a third-year bar card.

Licensed in Texas in 1994, Mr. Arnold spent ten years as a prosecutor. He served as First Assistant Criminal District Attorney in Van Zandt County from 1994 to 1999 and as an Assistant District Attorney in the Felony Trial Division of the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney's Office from 1999 to 2004. From 2004 to 2020 he ran his own firm, The Law Offices of Matthew Arnold, PC, focusing on felony and federal trial work in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and serving on the federal Criminal Justice Act panel, which appoints lawyers for people in federal court who cannot afford one. He joined Dunham & Jones in 2020.

Mr. Arnold was admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in 1994 and to the Eastern District of Texas in 2026, and he has spoken at a continuing legal education program on DWI. He practices criminal defense because no other area of law carries higher stakes, and he finds it the most interesting work a lawyer can do.

Outside of work, he and his wife enjoy going to the gym, and their two daughters are both pursuing careers in medicine.

Matthew Scott Arnold
Criminal Defense Attorney - Dunham & Jones
St. Mary's University School of Law | Stephen F. Austin State University
Former Prosecutor, Van Zandt and Dallas Counties

Matthew Scott Arnold, Attorney at Law