“We are very excited to welcome John Neiman to the Firm. His impeccable resume and extensive experience, including three years as Solicitor General for Alabama and several years previously in private practice in Birmingham, make him perfect for this role,” said Mark Drew, Maynard Managing Shareholder.

As Solicitor General, supervising all appeals in which the state government was a party or amicus, Neiman briefed and argued two high-profile cases on the merits at the U.S. Supreme Court. One concerned the constitutionality of life-without-parole sentences for juvenile murder defendants, and another concerned criminal defendants’ right to counsel during post-conviction proceedings. He also authored Supreme Court amicus briefs in a number of significant cases, including a decision out of Alabama declaring part of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional and a pending case in which the Court is considering the constitutionality of President Obama’s appointees to the National Labor Relations Board.

“John adds more depth and breadth to an already deep bench in our appellate practice. He will only strengthen our appellate group which handles complex and difficult matters on behalf of our clients in this state, throughout the country, and in its highest courts,” added Drew.

In the lower courts, Neiman was responsible for defending the well-publicized challenge brought by the Department of Justice and ACLU to Alabama’s immigration law. He ultimately negotiated an innovative settlement that has served as the model for a similar resolution in another state. He also served as the state’s principal appellate litigator in several high-stakes cases involving illegal gambling. During his time as Solicitor General, Neiman was named Appellate Lawyer of the Week by the National Law Journal and repeatedly was asked to write and speak on appellate issues by the press and professional organizations.

Before his time as Alabama’s Solicitor General, Neiman was an appellate litigator in private practice in Birmingham. He also was a clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States and to Judge Paul V. Niemeyer of the Fourth Circuit. Additionally, Neiman served on the law faculties at University of Alabama, University of Georgia, and Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, where he taught courses on appellate advocacy and U.S. Supreme Court practice.

Neiman graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2000, after earning a Bachelor of Arts at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.