Neal Manne

Practice Areas

Bet-the-company, Antitrust, Energy, Constitutional, Tort, Class Action, Insurance, Executive Compensation, IP, Pro Bono

Career

Neal Manne, former Managing Partner of Susman Godfrey, is one of the premier trial lawyers in America.

Manne has been called a “brilliant and incisive advocate as well as a leader in the profession.” When Lawdragon named Susman Godfrey as “America’s Leading Trial Firm” and “the nation’s most elite litigation firm,” it described Manne as “the emotional core of the firm.”

Manne was previously honored with both the John Minor Wisdom Public Service and Professionalism Award and the Pro Bono Publico Award by the ABA. Manne is the only person ever to receive both of these awards in the same year.

Texas Lawyer named Manne the “Attorney of the Year” in Texas. For four consecutive years The Best Lawyers in America named Manne the “Lawyer of the Year” in Houston in a major practice area: Antitrust 2019 and 2017, and Bet-The-Company Litigation in 2018 and 2016.

“He’s one of the best lawyers in Texas and nationwide.’ ‘He is regularly called on to represent clients from across the country in trial. He enjoys a ‘great reputation.’ Manne is “a remarkably bright and analytical lawyer” who is “widely recognized as ‘an exceptional trial lawyer’ . . . in business-critical disputes, including antitrust and commercial litigation.” “The ‘excellent’ Neal Manne is ‘incredibly smart, thoughtful and very strategic.’” “Clients consider the ‘passionate and thoughtful’ Neal Manne ‘one of the finest commercial litigators around’ due to his ‘astute, incisive and nimble mind,’ and his ‘rare gift of penetrating dense rhetoric and complex facts’ to get quickly to the heart of the matter.” A “tenacious litigator” and a “straight-shooter,” “Manne has a ‘wonderful reputation’ among clients and peers, who commend ‘his ability to understand the central weakness or strength of the case and convey his judgment with analysis that is appropriately detailed and dispassionate, and which carries no more certainty than is warranted by the facts.’”

Manne is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the most prestigious organization of trial lawyers. The College previously highlighted Manne’s pro bono work, writing that “his stellar example of furthering the administration of justice and ensuring access to justice for all, regardless of ability to pay, makes all Fellows of the College proud.” The Texas Law Review honored Manne with the Leon Green Award, its highest recognition of an alum’s outstanding contributions to the legal profession.

Professional Memberships

Manne was the founding Chair of the Board of Houston’s Center for AIDS, Vice Chair of the Houston Bar Foundation, President of the Texas Law Review Association, Commissioner (appointed by Governor Ann Richards) of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, member (appointed by Mayor Bill White) of the Harris County Houston Sports Authority, and a member of the boards of directors of many organizations, including UT School of Law Foundation, Houston Zoo, Houston Area Women’s Center, People for the American Way, Annie’s List, the ADL, UT Foundation, Houston Food Bank, University of Texas Development Board Executive Committee, Texas Defender Service, Houston Arboretum and Nature Center, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Action Fund, Houston Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, UT System’s Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee, Congregation Beth Israel, Texas Appleseed Foundation, Women’s Advocacy Project, Texas Freedom Network, and Grand Teton National Park Foundation.

Personal

On a pro bono basis, Manne has represented:

• a class of indigent individuals held in jail because they could not afford cash bail,

• a refugee resettlement agency successfully opposing the State of Texas’ effort to block Syrian refugees,

• an indigent woman facing the loss of her home,

• a religious organization,

• women’s health clinics targeted by violent protesters,

• a charitable trust,

• two different exonerated death row inmates,

• Houston’s public access television station,

• Muslim jail inmates seeking accommodation of their religion’s dietary restrictions,

• the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts,

• Texas Defender Service

Experience

Law Clerk to The Honorable William A. Norris, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 1980-81

Education