Born and raised in Chicago, Neville, 71, became the first African American to clerk for a Cook County Appellate Court judge in 1974. As an attorney, he focused on employment and civil rights litigation, ultimately establishing his own legal practice. Among the cases on which he worked was the 1992 Chicago ward remapping case, in which he argued that Chicago wards had been unfairly drawn to stifle the voting power of black and Latino residents.