The Office of the Chief Disciplinary Counsel will have a new leader beginning next month. On June 22, the Commission for Lawyer Discipline unanimously selected John A. Neal, chief of the Criminal Law Enforcement Division at the Texas Office of the Attorney General, from a field of 67 applicants to succeed Dawn Miller as chief disciplinary counsel. The State Bar of Texas board of directors voted unanimously on the same day to confirm the commission's selection. Miller announced on April 7 that she would be stepping down. Mark White, the commission's chairman, says the commission was looking for an exceptional trial lawyer and manager with experience managing a large budget. White says Neal, a 25-year lawyer, has that kind of experience. "We're very enthusiastic about that," says White, a partner in Amarillo's Sprouse Shrader Smith. White says Neal has experience trying misdemeanors to capital murders and everything in between. White says that Neal, a 1980 graduate of Samford University Cumberland School of Law, has been an OAG division chief since 1996 and previously was a prosecutor for Young County. Neal was on vacation last week and could not be reached for comment before presstime on June 23.
