Imara Odum
Civil rights lawyer, Odum Law
Imara has spent her career on one side of these cases: the person who got hurt, against the agency that hurt them.
She started as a public defender, where she watched the same officers and the same jail turn up in file after file. After five years she moved to the other side of the courtroom door, suing for the people whose stories she’d been hearing.
She opened Odum Law to keep her caseload small enough to know every client’s file by heart. She does her own depositions, visits every scene, and tries the cases that don’t settle.
She grew up in Ensley and still lives a few miles from it.
Cases she takes
- Police force and false arrest
- Jail and prison conditions
- Disability access
- Trials and appeals
Credentials
Admitted, trained and sworn in
Bar admissions
Alabama
2013
Georgia
2019
Courts
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama
2013
U.S. District Court, Middle District of Alabama
2016
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
2017
Education
J.D., University of Alabama School of Law
2013
B.A., Spelman College
2009
Languages
English
American Sign Language
Conversational
Memberships
National Police Accountability Project
Birmingham Bar Association
Why she works alone
Agencies have lawyers on staff and time on their side. What a person suing them needs most is a lawyer who knows the file cold and doesn’t hand it off.
So Imara keeps the practice to one lawyer and a paralegal, and takes only the cases she can carry to trial. When a case needs more hands, she brings in co-counsel she has tried cases with, and tells you before she does.
Want to talk it through with her?
Calls and messages go to Imara. She’ll tell you on the first call whether she can help.