Fayetteville attorney Bobby Lee Odom has died

Bobby Lee Odom, a practicing attorney since 1970 and founder of Odom Law Firm in Fayetteville, died Saturday (Oct. 10) at Washington Regional Medical Center after a brief illness. He was 81.

His death was confirmed Saturday night by a message posted to the firm’s social media page. It said the following:

“With heavy hearts, today we mourn the passing of our founder and friend, Bobby Lee Odom.”

Conrad Odom, Odom’s son, and a law firm partner said the death was not related to COVID-19. He said a private family service is planned Thursday (Oct. 15) at First United Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville. A public memorial will be held at a later date. Instead of flowers, the family has requested memorial donations to the Fayetteville Firefighters Scholarship Fund.

To read the obituary, click here.

Bobby Lee Odom focused his practice primarily on personal injury and medical malpractice matters and nursing home litigation. He earned a law degree from the University of Arkansas in 1970, then clerked for the Arkansas Supreme Court in Little Rock for one year.

Arriving back in Fayetteville, Odom worked with attorney Walter Niblock until 1982 when he started his law firm — Odom, Elliott, Lee and Martin.

Odom bought the historic Guisinger Building on the southeast corner of the downtown Fayetteville square to house the firm. Constructed in 1886, the two-story building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

The law firm evolved to its current name in 2006. Odom Law Firm relocated in 2017 to a former medical office building at 161 W. Van Asche Drive in Fayetteville in the Twin Creeks Village development. Odom sold the Guisinger Building to a group of private investors in January 2018 for $1 million.

Aside from his occupation, Odom was known for launching one of the region’s longest-running social events. He started the Seafood Jubilee in the 1970s. The inaugural gathering, held partly as a political fundraiser for judicial candidate David Stewart, was held at a pizza restaurant on Dickson Street in Fayetteville,

The annual event grew through the years to welcome hundreds of attorneys, politicos and business leaders from around the state for an afternoon and evening of socializing, music, shrimp and crawfish. It was held every summer until this year, a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.