Vicki Odette
Partner,
Haynes Boone LLP
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Vicki Odette joined Haynes Boone in 1997 as an investment management attorney and has worked her way through the ranks to become a partner, executive committee member and part of the board of directors. She is the global chair of the investment management practice group and leads an international team of over 75 attorneys. Vicki advises investment funds on the structure of their underlying private equity investments and assists clients with complex partnership, LLC, joint venture and preferred equity arrangements. She also advises fund sponsors on seed arrangements and executive compensation and employment arrangements. Vicki is a global financial industry leader and has worked with a long list of top-tier clients for the firm throughout her twenty-five years in the investment management group.
Vicki is a trusted advisor and counsel to Fortune 500 companies as well as to high-profile clients throughout the world. She helps manage some of the firm’s most significant client relationships, including institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and family offices with net worths exceeding $1 billion. Businesses, individuals and families seek her advice on business planning matters associated with the formation and operation of family offices and for representation on their investments. She regularly advises fund sponsors on the structure of their U.S. and non-U.S. investment funds, coinvestments, and separately managed accounts in every section of the hedge, venture, and private equity space.
Vicki has helped spearhead the efforts of the #2 client in the firm, raking in a collective $43.6 million, as well as the #8 client, producing $26.5 million in revenue over the past three years. She recently created a combination private equity/hedge fund IDF structure for an investment sub-advisor which was the first of its kind in the market. Vicki has been ranked as one of the top tax lawyers in America by The Best Lawyers in America for eleven straight years.
Some of Vicki’s representations include a sovereign wealth fund on wordwide investments in energy, private equity, infrastructure hedge, debt and credit fund co-investments. She has also represented an oil and gas company sponsor on the formation of numerous investment funds with taxable, tax-exempt, and foreign investors. In addition, Vicki has worked with natural resource operating companies and producers on pipeline, drilling, working interest, net profits interest, and royalty joint ventures.
Vicki volunteers her time in the legal community where she currently serves on the angel board of Texas Wallstreet Women. Formerly, she was on the private equity and venture capital committee for the American Bar Association, corporate tax committee and ex-vice chair for the State Bar of Texas Tax Section, tax law advisory commission for the State Bar of Texas, and international environmental tax subcommittee for the American Bar Association Taxation and Business Law Section. In addition, Vicki is an active participant in the Dallas Bar Association, American Bar Association, State Bar of Texas, and New York Bar Association.
In recognition of her service in the legal industry, Vicki has been named one of the Best Women Lawyers in Dallas for Tax by D Magazine in 2010, selected for inclusion in the Dallas Business Journal’s list of Who’s Who in Energy by the American City Business Journal in 2015, and has received a Peer Review Rating of AV Preeminent through the Martindale Hubbell Law Directory. She has been given high praise from her peers and is known as a powerhouse attorney who goes “all in” with every task she’s given.
Vicki has traveled to investment fund conferences across the globe, speaking on best practices and participating in networking events. She co-authored an article for The Drawdown exploring the core elements needed when building a successful private equity firm and was a speaker at the New York Energy Series. Vicki also has been actively involved in educating others about the SEC’s new private fund advisor rules that were implemented in 2024. She filmed a webinar discussing the issues and spoke at several events about the topic.
Vicki serves on various committees including the attorney diversity, equity & inclusion committee and affinity committee both of which center around LGBTQ+, women and black initiatives. She has been instrumental in the hiring, training and development of a number of attorneys who are now in leadership roles themselves at the firm. Vicki is an avid supporter of equal rights for everyone and has been an advocate of helping others succeed through networking, education, and professional advocacy in both her business and community endeavors.