Rod Schlagel
Shareholder
President and Managing Director

Practice Area:
Business and Commercial Transactions
Commercial Litigation
Real Estate and Business

Education:
University of Denver, J. D., 1979
University of Denver, B.A., summa cum laude, 1976

Admitted:
Colorado
New Mexico
U.S. District Court, New Mexico

Member:
State Bar of New Mexico
Albuquerque Bar Association
American Bar Association
Phi Beta Kappa

Background:
Rod is a shareholder with the law firm of Butt Thornton & Baehr PC.  He recently assumed primary management responsibility for the firm when he was elected President/Managing Director.  He also served as the Treasurer of the firm for eight years prior to being elected to his current position.  He concentrates his practice in the areas of Business, Real Estate and Commercial Litigation.  He was born and raised in Aurora, Colorado and learned about finances while working in his family’s business. He gained knowledge early about commercial transactions when the family business merged with two others and was ultimately acquired by a national company.  Rod decided then that he wanted to become an attorney.  He graduated from the University of Denver summa cum laude with a double major in Political Science and History in 1976.  He also attended accounting classes at the University of Denver Business School and received the highest grade in his class.  Anxious to begin his career as an attorney he earned his Juris doctorate from the University of Denver College of Law in 1979.  He was admitted to the State Bar in Colorado in 1979. He started as an associate with a Denver, Colorado firm but after two partners left the firm, he and his wife, Cherí, relocated to New Mexico.  Rod took another bar exam the next year and was sworn in as a member of the New Mexico State Bar in 1980.  After a brief tenure with a small firm in Albuquerque, he joined the law firm of Butt Thornton & Baehr PC, then Shaffer, Butt, Thornton & Baehr PC as a an associate on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1981 and has been with the Firm ever since.  He became the chair of the Commercial Department in 1995.  He handles complex commercial litigation matters in State and Federal District Court.  He is a member of the New Mexico Defense Lawyers Association, Albuquerque Bar Association and the American Bar Association. Rod is also the Chair of the Architectural Control Committee in his neighborhood, a member and officer of the Board of his church, is the pro bono general counsel to Teen Challenge of New Mexico and enjoys hiking, biking, camping, and fly fishing with his wife and their two dogs.