A Thomson Reuters Super Lawyer (2006-2020) and recipient of Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating, Wendell Odom has earned a national reputation as a criminal defense attorney.
To the public, Wendell is best known for his representation of Andrea Yates after she tragically drowned her five children. He obtained a “not guilty by reason of insanity” verdict in her incredibly high profile re-trial which 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 section to special crimes where he was the Chief of the Consumer Fraud Division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
In 1978, Wendell was lured away to the United States Department of Justice and became an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas. There he was assigned to the Fraud and Public Integrity Section investigating and prosecuting RICO crimes, notable politicians, individuals involved in the ABSCAM investigation, fraud, and public corruption cases in the Rio Grande Valley.
In 1981, Wendell left to start his own law practice. His representation has included the defense of major national corporations investigated and/or prosecuted under State and Federal laws, including Criminal Pollution, Fraud and Voting Rights Act violations. Wendell also has an active practice in defending persons charged with both State and Federal criminal tax violations. While Wendell’s practice includes many high profile cases involving bank fraud, tax evasion and white-collar crimes, he also successfully represents those charged in Texas state courts for offenses ranging from DWI to Capital Murder.
Respected by his peers, Wendell was named Attorney of the Year by the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association in 2002 and 2020, and has received a number of other distinctions over the years. He has been a Thomson Reuters Super Lawyer repeatedly for over a decade (2003, 2004, 2006-2020) and is rated AV by Martindale-Hubbell. He was president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association in 2005 and currently is the Chairman of the State Bar of Texas Committee on Pattern Criminal Jury Charges. He was an original member and currently serves on the Committee that approves and oversees the appointment of attorneys under the Criminal Justice Act in the Southern District of Texas. He has been a co-editor of the Houston Bar Journal and has lectured on criminal topics at various universities. Wendell has also conducted seminars and appeared on a number of national and local television and radio shows as an expert and “talking head” discussing high profile criminal cases.
Wendell is married to a real estate attorney and has one child.
Neal Davis, III has been involved in the criminal justice system for more than twenty years. In the 90’s, he was a police officer with the Houston Police Department. As a criminal defense attorney, he has represented clients alleged of committing state offenses from petty theft to capital murder. Neal has defended clients charged with federal crimes including federal capital murder (the government sought the death penalty), federal drug charges, bank robbery, money laundering, fraud, white-collar crimes, and criminal tax charges. He has successfully represented clients in appeals to the Fifth Circuit as well as the United States Supreme Court.
Neal is board certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Criminal Law. He is licensed in the Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of Texas, the Fifth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has been selected as a Thomson Reuters Rising Star (2013-2016) and Thomson Reuters Super Lawyer (2016-2020). Further, Neal has a Superb Lawyer rating by Avvo, and is a member of the National Trial Lawyers Top 100 (2015). Neal was selected as the Lawyer of the Year by the Harris County Criminal Lawyer’s Association (HCCLA) in 2020.
A resident of Houston for over thirty years, Neal graduated from Katy High School. He played football and baseball and boxed in the local gyms. He enlisted in the United States Navy and served honorably in the Mediterranean during the conflict with Libya and the Iraqi/ Iranian War. After returning from the military, Neal studied Russian Studies and Economics at the University of Houston before joining the HPD. An opportunity to work in Russia brought Neal into the oilfield where he excelled in drilling operations and technical service engineering. He obtained a BS degree from UH-Downtown then studied law in night school at South Texas College of Law, working full time and raising his children as a single father.
Neal is best known publicly for his assistance in the Andrea Yates case, working with Wendell Odom and George Parnham, and, most recently, in the defense of Royce Zeigler, II in the infamous “Baby Grace” case in Galveston County.
Neal’s practice is not just limited to Harris County but anywhere in the state of Texas, in both state criminal and federal court, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court.
Brian T. Hobson was born and raised in the greater Houston area. He graduated from Katy High School in 2003, and began college at the University of Texas-Austin the following year. Brian graduated with Honors from the University of Texas in 2008, and went on to work for the Attorney General’s Office in the State of Texas. At the Attorney General’s Office, Brian worked with victims of violent crime through the Crime Victim’s Compensation agency.
After three years with the Attorney General’s Office, Brian came back to Houston to begin his law career at the University of Houston Law Center. While at the University of Houston, Brian excelled academically, becoming a member of the University of Houston’s Order of the Barrons – an award handed out to law students in the top 15% of their class. Further, Brian was a member of the University of Houston Mock Trial team which allows students to take cases to trial against other law schools around the country. Brian graduated from the University of Houston Law Center in 2014.
Brian started with Odom & Davis in May of 2012 after his first year of law school. Brian was handling appellate work and assisting in some of the firm’s largest cases ranging from murder in the state courts to criminal tax fraud in the Federal District Courts. By the time Brian graduated from law school he had been to trial on numerous felony cases and represented various clients on appeal.
In 2019, Brian earned the position of partner at the newly established law firm, Odom, Davis & Hobson. Brian has an active practice focusing on criminal tax, child pornography, health care fraud, and serious state felonies. Brian also represents clients on appeal in both state and federal court. Brian was recognized as Lawyer of the Year in 2020 by the Harris County Criminal Lawyer’s Association. This award was based on various results throughout the year including overturning a client’s conviction for capital murder in state court and his role in obtaining not guilty verdicts on 25 counts of health care fraud in the Southern District of Texas.