John T. McNeil

Lecturer in Law
Assistant United States Attorney
B.A., magna cum laude, University of California at Berkeley
J.D., cum laude, Harvard Law School

A public interest litigator for nearly 20 years, John T. McNeil currently prosecutes public corruption as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.  Most recently, Mr. McNeil has been the lead prosecutor in a series of corruption cases targeting members of local police departments including: U.S. v. Roberto Pulido, et al. (multi-state undercover sting operation targeting corrupt Boston police officers); U.S. v. Edguardo Rodriguez, (targeting steroid distribution and use among law enforcement officers); U.S. v. Jose Ortiz, (police officer extorting cash and drugs on behalf of a Colombian drug organization); and U.S. v. Jordan, et al., (narcotics detective’s armed robbery of a cocaine dealer).

A distinguished federal trial and appellate attorney, Mr. McNeil was also the lead prosecutor in U.S. v. Thomas Finneran, targeting the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice in a voting rights case.  Mr. McNeil also brought the first federal investigation of clergy sexual abuse of children, and reached the first criminal settlement in the nation with a Catholic diocese in In re Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston.

Prior to joining the Public Corruption Unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. McNeil prosecuted a broad array of federal crimes including armored car robbery, murder, arson, bank robbery, carjacking, child exploitation, and street gang firearms/narcotics cases, among others.  During his tenure in the Boston U.S. Attorney’s office, Mr. McNeil brought a number of notable first prosecutions in Massachusetts including the first international parental kidnapping trial, the first Violence Against Women Act interstate staking case, and the first rape aboard an aircraft case.  Mr. McNeil has also briefed and argued numerous matters before the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Mr. McNeil served for nearly a decade at the United States Environmental Protection Agency in Boston.  There he investigated and prosecuted complex environmental crimes throughout New England.  During this period he held appointments as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Districts of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.  Mr. McNeil also represented the United States in numerous civil environmental matters including the negotiation and litigation of multi-million dollar hazardous waste clean-up cases, emergency remedial actions, and regulatory penalty matters.  His litigation career started at Norfolk District Attorney’s Office, where he tried cases as an Assistant District Attorney in courts throughout Norfolk County.

Mr. McNeil has been a featured speaker and taught courses at the Department of Justice’s National Advocacy Center, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Harvard Law School,  Boston University School of Law, and the Boston Bar Association, among others.      

Mr. McNeil is a cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School.  He is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of California at Berkeley where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year.  Mr. McNeil served as law clerk on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to the Hon. Francis P. O’Connor.