Professor Jonathan G. Odom
Class of 1971 Distinguished Military Professor of Leadership and Law
- Phone: (410) 293-6141
- E-mail: jodom@usna.edu
- Department of Leadership, Ethics, Law Luce Hall (Mail Stop 7-B) 112 Cooper Road Annapolis, MD 21402.
Jonathan G. Odom retired from the U.S. Navy in 2024, after 28 years of global service as a judge advocate in a variety of legal capacities, including as both a practitioner and a teacher. Currently, he serves as the Distinguished Military Professor of Leadership and Law. This professorship is funded by the Naval Academy’s Class of 1971 and resides within the Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law.
Odom is a native of High Point, North Carolina. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in History with Distinction from Duke University, a Juris Doctor from Wake Forest University, and a Master of Laws with Distinction from Georgetown University.
Odom began his Naval career as a legal assistance attorney and prosecutor for courts-martials involving U.S. Navy and Marine Corps personnel, first in Yokosuka, Japan and then in Naples, Italy. Thereafter, his legal practice in the Navy was focused on advising about matters involving international law and national security law to senior U.S. civilian policy leaders, U.S. and multi-national military commanders, headquarter staffs, and forces around the world for military operations at sea, in the air, on land, and in cyberspace. He also served as a legal and policy advisor on U.S. delegations for negotiations and official dialogues between the U.S. government and the governments of more than 20 nations around the world on matters involving international security.
At the policy level, Odom served as the Oceans Policy Advisor within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he managed the Department of Defense’s Freedom of Navigation Program and helped to negotiate the 2014 Memorandum of Understanding on the Rules of Behavior for Safety of Air and Maritime Encounters with the People's Republic of China. His other Pentagon headquarters assignments included serving as the Deputy Legal Advisor to the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Plans, Policy, and Operations (N3/N5), as the Assistant Special Counsel to the Chief of Naval Operations, and as an Attorney-Advisor within the Office of the Judge Advocate General of the Navy.
At the theater-strategic level of command, Odom served as the Deputy Staff Judge Advocate to Commander, U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii, where his legal portfolio focused primarily on the law of the sea and the law of armed conflict.
At the operational and tactical levels of command, Odom deployed and served as a legal advisor to military commanders and their staffs for a wide range of military operations. At sea, he served as the Assistant Staff Judge Advocate to Commander, Carrier Strike Group 5, and deployed aboard USS INDEPENDENCE (CV-62) to the Arabian Gulf for Operation Southern Watch. Thereafter, he served as the Staff Judge Advocate to Commander, Amphibious Squadron 13, and deployed aboard USS BELLEAUWOOD (LHA-3) to the East China Sea, South China Sea, Gulf of Thailand, and Java Sea for Operation Bevel Incline, Exercise Cobra Gold, and a series of freedom of navigation operations.
Ashore, Odom served as the Assistant Staff Judge Advocate to Commander, NATO Kosovo Force, and deployed to Pristina, Kosovo for post-conflict stabilization operations. Thereafter, he served as the Chief of Operational Law to Commander, II Marine Expeditionary Force and Multi-National Force – West, and deployed to Fallujah, Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom in direct support of counter-insurgency and counter- terrorism operations during the troop surge of 2007. He also served as the Chief of Operational Law to Commander, U.S. Joint Support Force – Japan, and deployed to Yokota Air Force Base, Japan for Operation Tomodachi in response to the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster.
In addition to his service a legal practitioner, Odom has taught law full-time for more than 12 years to a diverse range of audiences, including U.S. military and other U.S. government attorneys, other U.S. military personnel and civil servants, and foreign government officials from a total of 166 nations. From 2001 to 2004, he served as an Instructor of Law at the U.S. Naval Justice School, located in Newport, Rhode Island. From 2015 to 2019, he served as the Military Professor of Law and Maritime Security at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, located in Honolulu, Hawaii. From 2019 to 2024, he served as the Military Professor of International Law at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, located in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. He has also served as an adjunct professor at U.S. law schools, which has included teaching a maritime security law course at the University of Hawaii School of Law and a national security law course at the Wake Forest University School of Law.
Odom’s personal military awards included: the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal (four awards), the Navy and Marine Corps Meritorious Service Medal (two awards), the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (four awards), the Joint Service Achievement Medal, and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (four awards). He was qualified as both a Fleet Marine Force Officer and an expert rifleman. In 2015, the Judge Advocates Association recognized Odom with the Career Armed Services Attorney Award.
Odom is a recognized expert in the fields of international law and national security law, who has published numerous law journal articles, book chapters, and opinion-editorials and online commentaries, spoken globally at more than 60 legal conferences and other academic events, and provided numerous interviews to U.S. and foreign news-media.
