“Dad drove me to his office at Cedar Springs and Field Street near downtown Dallas where I began doing clerical work and legal drafting from age 13 until I started at the DA’s Office. Though I’m in my 20th year of lawyering, I call that bonus practice,” says attorney JoDee Neil.
Neil is a fourth-generation Texan and second-generation trial attorney. She began her trial career in 2004 through the Prosecution Clinic at SMU and in 2005 as an assistant district attorney. Since then, she has sat as lead counsel in more than 100 jury trials in North Texas. She served primarily in the Crimes Against Children division of the DA’s office, where she developed her niche specialty during her several-year career as a prosecutor. Neil is one of very few civil or criminal attorneys who have worked with child witnesses in live legal proceedings.
“Those early experiences have value,” she says. “I’m not an average 44-year-old lady lawyer. I’ve spent my entire life contemplating human problems and human solutions. Justice has mattered to me since I was a very young child. Those I work with benefit from my holistic approach to problem-solving which is sourced from breadth of exposure and I have my dad to thank for this gift. Living abroad helped, too.”
Her father was the well-known William “Wild Bill” Neil who was board certified in criminal and family law, was a ninth-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and former First Assistant in Cameron County.
“Wild Bill” had a reputation in North Texas as an innovative and fearless trial lawyer as well as a single father to two daughters. Their relationship within the practice of law was challenging. “My dad and I were very competitive about trying cases, not only with other attorneys, but also with each other. We had a healthy, but intense competition that our close mutual trial lawyer friends remember well. It was a unique tension between father and daughter.”
That tension combined with her own drive led to a successful continuation of the family legacy. She delivered each of Wild Bill’s granddaughters in Singapore in 2015 and 2016 where she also served as legal advisor to a non-government organization based in Indonesia. She attended the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Interpol conferences and shared her knowledge and experiences speaking at events. She lived abroad for nearly six years.
Neil returned to the United States in September 2016 and began a plaintiff’s practice immediately. In 2018 she joined Simon Greenstone Panatier, PC as a trial attorney, leaving that firm in August 2024.
Having lost her mother to a prescription drug overdose in 2010, Neil was honored to serve as counsel of record for dozens of Texas Counties in the Opioid Litigation. In 2018, she began official roles on behalf of the plaintiff steering committee such as ESI liaison and a co-lead for the Texas litigation.
Fighting Big Pharma was “no joke,” Neil says.
It is well documented that Neil was an instrumental member of the team who has secured nearly $3 billion in settlements for Texas opioid harm reduction efforts. Her work with local mortality data has been described as “groundbreaking.” Furthermore, she is a fearless advocate who successfully defended the law of public nuisance on behalf of Texas Opioid County Clients in the House and Senate during the 87th and 88th Sessions. Additionally, she wrote a bill introduced in the House and Senate to benefit clients in workplace sexual harassment cases.
She continues the legacy of the Neil brand by staying committed to the law and justice and to change, especially helping make positive changes in the lives of her clients and in making equally positive changes to the legal system.
She says one of the reasons for her ongoing success in the law and in the business of being a lawyer is that she feels compelled to pay forward the privilege of being a trial lawyer’s daughter.
“Like my father, I show up dressed for success and with a confident smile on my face,” she says. “I make it clear that I’ve got things under control and I am truthful about the facts. I can cut to the bone like my dad could, but I prefer the empathetic approach, which is unique to me.”
Neil earned her undergraduate degree from Texas A&M, Corpus Christi, and her Juris Doctor from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. Her broad niche areas include international child protection issues, crimes against children, sexual assault survivor behaviors, sex offender and violent offender behaviors in addition to public entity plaintiff practice, Texas Legislature Advocacy, Texas opioid litigation, eDiscovery, and public speaking and advocacy.
She has been selected as one of D Magazine’s Best Lawyers and recognized by the National Trial Lawyers in the Top 100 Civil Plaintiff Trial Lawyers in Texas.
She has been approved to accept first degree felony appointments by the Dallas Criminal District Judges and has Guardian Ad Litem Certification.
Neil is mother to two daughters, Naomi, 9, and Willa, 8, and is active in the PTA and as a Girl Scout Volunteer Mom.
For more information, visit jodeeneil.com.
