In Memoriam
John Gregory Odom was born November 29, 1951 in the small farming town of Hahira, Georgia. He graduated from Yale with a degree in English, cum laude, in 1973. He studied for two years at The Queen’s College, Oxford and was awarded B.A. (hons) and M.A. degrees in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1978, and was admitted to the Georgia Bar immediately upon graduation.
After practicing for several years in Savannah and Washington, Mr. Odom moved to New Orleans in 1982 and eventually formed his own firm, which evolved into Odom & Des Roches, LLC.
Mr. Odom tried jury cases in a wide variety of litigation areas. The first half of his forty-two year litigation career was spent largely on the defense side and the latter half largely on the plaintiffs’ side. Over the years his trial practice focused, at various times, on personal injury, banking, RICO, securities, accounting malpractice, and for the last twenty years, antitrust class actions.
In 1998 he argued the case of Rivet vs. Regions Bank before the United States Supreme Court. This resulted in a 9-0 Supreme Court victory for the firm’s client, reversing both the United States District Court and Court of Appeals below. For over 30 years he was rated “AV” by Martindale-Hubbell, and was listed in Martindale’s Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers.