Jody Gilzene
Founder & Managing Attorney

Practice Areas:
General Counsel, Investigations, Litigation, Military & Veterans, NIL Advisory
Direct Email: [email protected]
Main Phone:  214-896-6054
Direct Phone: 469-382-6088
Social Media: LinkedIn

As Managing Attorney of Gilzene Law Group, Jody leads the firm’s strategic direction and ensures the consistent delivery of our core legal services. Backed by more than 18 years of experience, Jody brings a track record of sound leadership, disciplined management, and deep expertise in general counsel advisory, complex investigations, white-collar defense, litigation, military law, regulatory compliance, and enterprise-wide legal risk mitigation.

Education

Master of Business Administration (MBA), Cornell University

Master of Laws (LLM), Securities & Financial Regulation, Georgetown University Law Center

Juris Doctor (JD), Cooley Law School

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Criminal Justice, University of Illinois at Chicago

Current Practice

Jody delivers tailored outside or fractional general counsel services to financial services industry clients to support day-to-day operations, robust compliance programs, and mitigate enterprise-wide legal risk exposure. 

She ensures strategic legal counsel to businesses, institutions, and senior executives across heavily regulated sectors, guiding them through high-stakes internal and government investigations, enforcement actions, and complex white-collar matters while mitigating civil, criminal, regulatory, reputational, and financial risk.

Jody provides skilled and tenacious litigation representation in complex civil, regulatory, and white-collar litigation matters for our  general counsel and investigations clients.

Additionally, drawing on her experience as a former military attorney, Jody advocates for military members and veterans facing adverse legal issues to include courts-martial, administrative discharge boards, VA benefits claim denials and military records corrections.

Finally, as a former collegiate student-athlete, Jody brings a unique perspective to name, image, and likeness (NIL) advisory and deal-making. She understands the value of NIL because she lived it before it could be monetized. As a seasoned regulatory and business counsel, she understands how to navigate the fast-evolving NIL landscape, as well as the interests and concerns of various NIL parties.

Prior Professional Experiences

Immediately before forming Gilzene Law Group, Jody was a Vice President and Assistant General Counsel - Global Financial Crimes for JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest bank in the United States and fifth largest bank globally. She regularly advised senior executives across the global enterprise on various cross-border, financial crime-related matters, regulatory compliance, enterprise-wide legal risk mitigation, and significant government investigations. She was also the designated financial crimes legal advisor for the Asset & Wealth Management line of business -specifically the LATAM Private Bank - engaging in investigation and general counsel advisory matters involving family offices, high-net-worth individuals, and ultra-high-net-worth individuals.

Before entering corporate practice, Jody served as a Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney (federal prosecutor) with the U.S. Department of Justice in West Texas. She conducted complex criminal investigations and handled a broad array of high-stakes federal crimes, including money laundering, corruption and bribery, drug trafficking, immigration fraud, various customs-related violations, computer-related crimes, wire fraud, cultural properties and art theft, false representations to government officials, and financial fraud. Jody also litigated criminal cases in federal district court, collaborating with agents and other attorneys, as lead counsel.

In her earlier government service, Jody served as an active duty Judge Advocate General (JAG) in the U.S. Air Force. Her assignments spanned roles as a prosecutor, ethics advisor, general counsel, criminal defense attorney, and civil litigation counsel in employment law. She operated in high-stakes, diverse environments across multiple countries, including a deployment to the Middle East.

While attending law school for her Juris Doctor, Jody worked full-time as a criminal investigator for a county government agency in Michigan, handling financial crime investigations and restitution matters in the Economic Crimes Unit.

Attorney Bar Admissions

State Bar of Texas
State Bar of Michigan
U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
U.S. Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals

Pro Bono Work 

Jody volunteers as a pro bono attorney with The Veterans Consortium, a D.C.-based non-profit that helps U.S. military veterans with various legal issues. She works specifically with the Veterans Naturalization Assistance Program; helping veterans, who are lawful permanent residents, obtain their U.S. citizenship.

Interesting Facts

Jody was a Division I NCAA basketball scholarship student-athlete throughout all four years of college.

Jody is a naturalized U.S. citizen and first-generation immigrant, born in Jamaica.

In her free time, Jody enjoys spending time with her family and close friends, traveling, and learning new skills. She is currently learning Spanish.