Doug Norwood

“I love using the law to find mistakes the police make that allow us to negotiate a dismissal or achieve a not guilty for our clients. Every mistake we can identify in a case helps us get great results for our clients. Cathy and I have worked hard to build a criminal defense team that effectively achieves great results for the people who put their faith in us to help them.” - Doug Norwood For over 30 years, former prosecuting attorney Doug Norwood has devoted his legal career to defending the people of Northwest Arkansas against criminal charges. He started his firm as a solo attorney handling all kinds of legal matters. Doug quickly decided that DWI and criminal defense were the only kinds of cases he wanted to handle. During his time in practice, he has hand-picked a team of highly skilled litigation attorneys whom he leads. Doug and his team have defended more than 35,000 criminal cases, including thousands of felonies and more than 11,000 DWI cases. Doug originally hails from North Florida, where he attended Florida State University and received a Bachelor of Science in Criminology. He moved to Fayetteville in the early 1980s to attend the University of Arkansas, where he received his law degree. He worked as a prosecutor upon graduation from law school and, in 1988, he opened his own DWI and criminal defense practice. His wife, Cathy, joined him as a law partner in 1995. For 10 consecutive years, Doug has been selected for inclusion in the Super Lawyers® list for the Mid-South Region. Super Lawyers® also chose Doug to be one of the top 50 lawyers out of over 10,000 lawyers in Arkansas. In addition, on two occasions, he has been named by the Arkansas Times as one of the Best Criminal Law/DWI Lawyers in Arkansas. He also won top honors in the NWA Democrat-Gazette’s Best of NWA – Best Criminal Defense Lawyer. Doug has twice been named the Champion of Justice by the Arkansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and has been the recipient of the Arkansas Bar Association’s Lawyer Community Legacy Award. Doug has also received the coveted Martindale-Hubbell® AV Preeminent® Rating, which sets him apart as one of the Preeminent® Lawyers in his field of criminal defense and DWI law. In addition, he maintains the highest ranking an attorney can achieve on Avvo, one of the leading lawyer referral sites in the country. Doug was one of the founding members in establishing the Arkansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and has served as a board member and president of that association. He is certified to administer the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Field Sobriety Tests and has had training on the Intoximeter EC/IR II. This is the blood alcohol content (BAC) testing device for DWI cases required for all police agencies in Arkansas.