Legal Career
After 1971, O'Neill moved out of the media spotlight. He studied law at the University of Texas, graduating first in his class in 1973 and being admitted to the bar in 1974. Appointed to the President's National Advisory Counsel on Supplemental Services and Centers, he served from 1973 to 1974. He was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William H. Rehnquist from 1974 to 1975.
O’Neill subsequently returned to Texas to practice law, specializing in commercial litigation. He later co-founded the law firm Clements, O’Neill, Pierce, Wilson, and Fulkerson in Houston. His partners at that firm included, among others, Margaret Wilson, who once served as general counsel for George W. Bush during his time as governor of Texas, and the late Tex Lazar, who once ran for lieutenant governor on the same ticket with Bush and who died in 2003. The firm was recently subsumed into the larger Howrey LLP.
According to his most recent firm resume, in addition to practicing oil and gas litigation, O’Neill obtained one of the largest securities arbitration judgments in history representing a small-time investor who had been defrauded by a large securities company, and also successfully represented a class of immigrants in a suit against Fiesta, allowing them to recover their money when the savings and loan went under.
The Texas Lawyer magazine reported on February 19 and 26, 1990, that O'Neill, who was representing the plaintiffs in a securities fraud class action underlying a malpractice suit, and two other lawyers, were threatened with sanctions for allegedly violating the Texas Code of Professional Responsibility by the judge in the case, United States District Judge David Hittner, who declined to pursue the matter after the trial was completed.
In 1991, O'Neill was considered by President George H. W. Bush for nomination as a federal judge in Texas, but was passed over.
Read more about this topic: John O'Neill (Vietnam Veteran)
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