Wendell Odom, JR.

Annually a Texas Monthly’s Super Lawyer and recipient of Martindale- Hubbell’s highest ratings Wendell Odom earned an international reputation as a criminal defense attorney.  Although best known to the public for representing Andrea Yates after she tragically drowned her five children. 

The “not guilty by reason of insanity” verdict in her incredibly high profile re-trial touched off a national debate over insanity laws and our system of justice.   Wendell has had a long and successful history of trial advocacy in Criminal law.

A  Houston native Wendell is the son of Judge Wendell A. Odom and grew up in and around the trial and appellate courts of Houston and Austin Texas.  Wendell graduated from Baylor Law School in 1974 and became an Assistant District Attorney under the legendary Carol Vance in Harris County, Texas. 

He quickly rose from the trial to the special crimes section and was the chief of the Consumer Fraud Division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.  In 1978, Wendell was lured away to the Department of Justice and became an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of Texas.  He was assigned to the Fraud and Public Integrity Section investigating RICO crimes and prosecuting such infamous figures as the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, individuals charged out of the ABSCAM investigation, and a number of public corruption cases in the Rio Grande Valley.

In 1981, Wendell struck out on his own starting his law practice.  He represents a number of major national corporations involved in a broad spectrum of investigations and charges of Criminal Pollution, Fraud, Violations of the Voting Rights Act and other state and federal offenses.  Wendell has an active practice in defending persons charged with criminal tax violations both state and federal and was named Attorney of the Year by the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association in 2002.

Wendell has defended not only those accused in high profile cases involving bank fraud, tax evasion and  Enron related offenses, he has also represented those charged in Texas state courts for offenses ranging from DWI to Capital Murder.   Recently he was noted for his successful appeal of Norma Sanchez in her case involving illegal immigrant smuggling and the deaths of 19 aliens found dead in an abandoned refrigerator truck near Victoria in 2003.  Ms. Sanchez was sentenced by the federal district court; however, Wendell’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari was granted by the United States Supreme Court, which vacated the judgment of the Fifth Circuit sending her case back to the district court in Houston in 2008.
Wendell has received a number of distinctions over the years:  he was president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association in 2005, serves on the Texas State Bar’s Pattern Criminal Jury charge Committee, the Federal Committee for the appointment of attorneys under the Criminal Justice Act in the Southern District of Texas, has co- edited the Houston Bar’s magazine.  He has lectured in Universities, conducted seminars and appeared on a number of national and local TV and radio shows as an expert and “talking head” on high profile Criminal cases.

Wendell is married to a Real Estate Attorney and has one child.