The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) today announced that James E. Odell has joined the company as First Deputy General Counsel (Deputy GC). Odell brings more than 25 years of legal expertise in the financial services industry to this role, most recently with UBS Investment Bank. He reports to Larry E. Thompson, Managing Director and General Counsel.
Odell will serve as the primary legal advisor to the General Counsel and the lead legal advisor to DTCC’s senior business leaders. In this capacity, he will work with the General Counsel in managing the legal department as well as outside legal. He will become a key member of DTCC’s legal team, collaborating in the full range of strategic, business development, asset protection, reputational, legal, and operational management issues for the company.
“Jim’s solid legal experience in the financial industry, in-depth knowledge of the key issues impacting the capital markets globally and proven leadership strengths will be of great benefit to DTCC and our legal department,” said Thompson. “I am thrilled to have him joining us at this time and look forward to working closely with him and our legal team to further DTCC’s mission to protect the safety and efficiency of our markets and the industry.”
From 2005 to 2010, Odell was General Counsel/Americas of UBS Investment Bank. There he managed UBS’s legal and compliance staff for its Investment Bank in the Americas and for all of the bank’s businesses in Latin America. His wide areas of responsibility covered litigation, compliance, as well as corporate, employment, transactional and traded products legal matters. He also oversaw the company’s regulatory matters and relationships, lobbying, FEC oversight and government relations.
Odell also coordinated M&A support for all significant UBS purchase and sale activity in the Americas region and played a key role in advising on U.S. securities disclosure issues and UBS financing activity. In 2008, he served along with the UBS Investment Bank CEO and Chief Risk Officer on the Treasury/Federal Reserve Wall Street crisis management team which was charged with reviewing alternatives to the Lehman bankruptcy, the sale of Merrill Lynch, the preliminary restructuring steps for AIG and establishing emergency financing facilities for the industry.
Prior to UBS, Odell was Global General Counsel of Investment Banking for Citigroup’s Investment Bank, responsible for supervising the overall provision of legal services to the investment banking department globally and managing all outside counsel engagements and relationships. He served as a member of the Investment Bank’s Commitment Committee and senior management operating and management committees. Earlier in his career, he was a partner O’Melveny & Meyers LLP and Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue and a senior associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
“As the primary infrastructure for the U.S. capital markets, DTCC has been a principal player in protecting the stability, soundness and resiliency of the capital markets both domestically and across the globe,” said Odell. “I am excited to be joining DTCC and to become a member of such a top-notch legal team, particularly at this important time when an intensified focus on risk mitigation and regulatory reform has become front and center for the financial industry.”
Odell earned his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and a B.S. in Finance from Lehigh University.
He is a member of the Board of Advisors, Institute for Law and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and the Wharton School of Business. He is also the past Chairman of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce/NY. Odell served as a member of the Committee of Counsel for The Clearing House Association, the Capital Markets Committee for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and is director and General Counsel of The Danzer Foundation, a group affiliate of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Association.
Odell resides in Bronxville, NY; is married with two children.
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