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Veteran Oklahoma City litigator joins McAfee & Taft

Paula Burkes
Drew Neville has tried more than 126 cases before juries, including many complex and national ones. [JIM BECKEL/THE OKLAHOMAN]

Veteran Oklahoma City litigator Drew Neville recently asked his longtime secretary to count how many jury trials he’s tried, using the desk calendars he’s kept since 1976.

She stopped counting at 126, said Neville, 71, who’s taken the lead role in, well, countless, civil and criminal litigation cases including many high-profile complex, state and national ones.

To name a few, Neville represented Carl Icahn in his takeover attempt of Phillips Petroleum and tried memorable cases following the aftermath of the Murrah Building bombing.

Among his most recent celebrated cases was successfully representing prominent McAfee & Taft attorney Martin Stringer, who faced 63 counts concerning allegedly accepting bribes as a co-defendant of former Oklahoma Senate leader Mike Morgan. The investigation spanned three years and crossed state borders before the court dropped 33 counts against Stringer for lack of evidence and cleared him on the rest in a five-week trial that ended in March 2013.

“I admire Martin for having the guts to stand up and plead ‘Not guilty,’” Neville said, “when the FBI and a U.S. attorney was on the other side.”

Neville garnered the attention of Oklahoma’s legal community when he, earlier this month, joined Stringer as “of counsel” at McAfee & Taft.

Formerly with Hartzog, Conger, Cason & Neville, he, through acquisitions, virtually has practiced for 44 years with the same firm, merging with Hartzog in 2000. At McAfee, he’ll continue to take a lead role in the firm’s major litigation trials, Neville said, and have time for other interests.

From his 10th-floor offices in Leadership Square, Neville sat down with The Oklahoman last week to talk about his life and career including his most memorable cases, which incidentally don’t include his representation of Martha Stewart, Snoop Dog or Imelda Marcos. You’ll have to ask him about those. This is an edited transcript:

Tell us about your roots.

I was born in Oklahoma City, but when I was in the fifth grade, my father was transferred with the commercial real estate company for which he worked to Lake Worth, Fla. — a town of about 3,000 south of Palm Beach. When I was a freshman in high school, we moved back to Oklahoma — to Tulsa — where he started Leland Equipment Co., which built tractor-trailers to haul large 36-inch-wide pipelines. For an eight-month stint, we lived in Edmonton, Canada. My mother was the quintessential homemaker. I have two younger brothers: Richard, who’s a retired banker in Seattle, and Bob, who’s 10 years younger and works as executive vice president for BancFirst.

What were the highlights of your schooldays?

I was all jock. I played football, basketball, baseball and track. In 1964, I was the state’s eastern division champion in the 100-yard dash. I weighed all of 155 pounds. When I was a sophomore, I took — and fell in love with — debate and decided to become a lawyer.

And your early career?

For my last two years of law school and the year following graduation, I worked for a small firm that gave me immediate experience trying mainly insurance defense cases. I didn’t care what cases I was assigned — divorce, car wrecks or otherwise. I got invaluable experience on my feet in a courtroom, in front of a jury and judge. Soon after, I, through my roommate’s connections, was hired as a legislative assistant for U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon to work in Washington, D.C. Among my other duties, I evaluated and analyzed the evidence in the Watergate case in preparation for the trial to impeach President Nixon. Those two and half years were a really exciting time for a guy who was 26 years old. After Nixon resigned, Sen. Bellmon helped me land a job with the U.S. attorney’s office in Oklahoma City. At first, I mainly handled DUI cases against military folks at Fort Sill, but I advanced to handling more complex ones, including prosecuting what was then the largest seizure of marijuana in the state’s history, eight tons flown from Colombia into Chickasha, and winning convictions against five federal prisoners accused of murdering a fellow inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in El Reno. The former was a three-month trial. There were a lot of indictments including people who weren’t on the plane and much circumstantial evidence to overcome. Before I left the U.S. attorney’s office, I was called to join the team that prosecuted Oklahoma Gov. David Hall on extortion and conspiracy charges.

What are the most high profile, complex cases that you believe you represented well?

I feel that we reached favorable settlements in defending the Las Vegas Hilton against allegations of negligence in the infamous Tailhook sexual assault case and in protecting the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce of Toronto, after Enron shareholders filed a class action against the bank for its involvement with the corrupt corporation. In Tailhook, more than 100 U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviation officers were alleged to have sexually assaulted 83 women and seven men during the 35th Annual Tailhook Association Symposium in September 1991. For the Enron case, I worked with a Chicago firm, Mayer Brown, which had offices worldwide. The firm has no ties to Oklahoma City, but I met and worked alongside associates during litigation following the fall of Penn Square Bank. The litigation catapulted Oklahoma’s bar into national prominence. It centered in federal court in Oklahoma City and was the largest securities litigation in the U.S. All the huge firms from the East and West Coasts were in Oklahoma City. The silver lining to the bank collapse was the national exposure for me and other lawyers. It put us on the map.

What former case still keeps you up at night?

The federal case against the late Oklahoma City oilman Aubrey McLendon for allegedly violating antitrust laws. I was on Aubrey’s defense team and feel guilty about not keeping him from being indicted. I believe the Justice Department was horribly flawed in even charging him. The DOJ assured us that we’d be notified if he was going to be indicted, but we weren’t. I was in Scottsdale when I got the news and immediately caught a flight back to Oklahoma City. I learned Aubrey had died when I turned on my phone on the taxi ride home. Aubrey and I weren’t friends; we didn’t socialize together. But we were certainly well-acquainted. His passing was a huge loss for our community.

PERSONALLY SPEAKING

Position: McAfee & Taft law firm, Of Counsel

Age: 71

Graduated high school from: Edison High School in Tulsa. He was president of his senior class.

Education: University of Oklahoma, law degree and bachelor’s in business. He won a scholarship from Champlain Oil Co.; served as president of Beta Theta Pi fraternity; served, after ROTC training, as a second lieutenant in the Army Signal Corps in Georgia; and worked in OU’s accounting department to help pay his way through law school.

Residence: Glengate town homes in northwest Oklahoma City

Significant other: Susan Parker, partner of 23 years. They began dating after a 1996 gala at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum; he used to play golf with her ex-husband.

Children: John, 40, of Oklahoma City; Ted, 35, of Tucson; and via Susan, four “defacto grandchildren,” ages 7 to 16.

Professional/community affiliations: He’s among some 2 percent of attorneys nationwide who belong to the American College of Trial Lawyers; Children’s Hospital Foundation, former president and longtime board member; and the Historical Society of The United States District Court for The Western District of Oklahoma, board member

Authored books: “Jack’s 45th” on his parents’ concurrent experiences fighting in WWII and waiting for its end. Proceeds equally benefit the Central Oklahoma Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure Fund (Susan is a breast cancer survivor), the Oklahoma Historical Society and the Oklahoma Heritage Museum.

Favorite place to unwind: Scottsdale, where he has a vacation home