Hamilton Odell

In the older generation of New York lawyers, now rapidly passing away, Hamilton Odell was an outstanding figure. When he retired from active practice in 1915, he had been sixty years at the Bar. He had represented many important interests, among them the Lackawanna Railroad Company, whose attorney he was for more than thirty years; but his chief work, and that for which he enjoyed a distinction rare at any Bar, was the hearing of cases in which he had been selected by counsel to act as referee. At times he had as many as forty such cases pending on his docket, some of them of vast importance. There could be no better evidence of his ability as a lawyer or of his absolute fair mindedness. To name him as referee, one of the tributes to him from his profession stated, “was a pledge of one’s own sincerity.” In private life Odell was a man of singular charm, of quiet humor, of tolerant views of men and affairs. Among his professional associates, his vast store of legal anecdote and reminiscence made him a most agreeable companion.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1923 Century Association Yearbook