Damon Hudson

As a boy, Hudson told his father he wanted to be a football player or a lawyer. After college he worked as a fraternity consultant in Chicago, then started a master's degree in New Mexico that he hated, and only then remembered the childhood answer. He went to the University of Nebraska College of Law expecting tax or employee benefits work, spent two summers and his first job in defense practice, and disliked it. A job interview question, why do you want to do plaintiff's work, pushed him to try it.

Hudson, a former high school left guard, says he liked being on offense and dictating the pace, and he runs cases the same way. His wife summed up his job during COVID as pestering people all day, and he agrees: he pushes for scheduling orders and depositions so files do not sit for years in what some call the land of mañana. He also tries to make things convenient for clients rather than making them wait in a lobby. “I love the resolution,” he says.

A woman whose name closely resembled Hudson's called about a crash on a trip to Mount Rushmore through New Mexico. A driver going more than double the speed limit hit them as they turned left; she was airlifted home to another state, and her partner's broken leg needed a titanium rod. Hudson laid out the options, and the couple chose a resolution that let them move on rather than a long trial. He flew out to deliver the check. Later they texted him a photo of themselves at Mount Rushmore, which he calls a perfect bookend.

Hudson admits he felt intimidated before recording, after hearing his friend Sharif Gray's episode, and says that feeling mirrors much of going solo: so much of standing up for people is confidence, even when a defense lawyer threatens consequences. He looks back at the scared young associate he was six years ago, is impressed by how far he has come and aims to double that growth. His reasons are his wife and daughter, and the people who call him on their worst days. Being brave, he tells his daughter, is overcoming fear.

Hudson graduated from the University of New Mexico and earned his J.D. from the University of Nebraska College of Law in 2016. He spent law school summers in tax and employee benefits work, then joined a defense firm before moving to the plaintiff's side. He founded Hudson Injury Law in 2024, not from a long-held plan but because he was bringing in clients and the math worked, letting him spend more time with his family. His parents were teachers; nobody in the family owned a business.

Hudson Injury Law is a solo personal injury practice in New Mexico founded by Hudson in 2024, with a website at hudsoninjurylaw.com. Hudson handles personal injury, wrongful death and insurance bad faith matters. He says his best cases have come from matters other firms turned down, and he presses insurers for fair settlements rather than letting cases stagnate. When a client told him she would use her settlement to buy a house, he asked only that she tell him when, so he could send a housewarming gift.