He was the son of James Dodd, a sea captain and Elizabeth Hughes,[1] an Irish immigrant from Dublin.
[2] Dodd attended Boys High School, he spent five years working for the Manhattan law firm Seward, Guthrie & Steele, later known as Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
[4] In 1904, Dodd was elected to the New York State Assembly as a Democrat, representing the Kings County 6th District.
He was also vice president of the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum of the Diocese of Brooklyn and a director of St. Vincent's Home and the Emerald Association.
He was a member of Knights of Columbus, the Brooklyn Bar Association, the Society of Old Brooklynites, the Royal Arcanum, and the Friendly Sons of St.