News

23 OCT 2007

Two DLA Piper Attorneys Receive Paul R. Dean Award From Georgetown University Law Center

Miller, O’Neil Honored for Leadership to Georgetown Law and the Legal Profession

Press Release

(Washington, D.C.) – DLA Piper US LLP attorneys Lee Miller and Thomas O’Neil III have been honored by Georgetown University Law Center with its annual Paul R. Dean Award.

Miller, based in Chicago, serves as Joint Chief Executive Officer of DLA Piper and a member of the firm's Executive Committee and Global Board. O’Neil works in the Washington, D.C. and New York offices, co-chairs the firm's Government Controversies group and is a member of DLA Piper's firmwide Policy Committee.

The award, which is named for former Law Center Dean Paul R. Dean, is given to outstanding alumni who have exhibited leadership to Georgetown Law and the legal profession. Dean has been a member of the Law Center faculty since 1947, was dean of the Law Center from 1954 to 1969 and became professor emeritus in 1988. During his years as dean, he adopted the school name “Law Center,” established the Pettyman Fellows, restructured the graduate program, obtained major grants from private and public sources for studies and curriculum innovations in the field of criminal justice and successfully planned and fundraised for the construction of McDonough Hall. Five distinguished alumni were honored with the award this year.

About the Honorees

For nearly 30 years, Lee Miller has concentrated his practice in the area of commercial real estate law. He represents clients in a wide range of commercial real estate transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions of portfolios, individual properties and loans, complex financing, joint ventures, syndications, construction contract negotiations and lease preparation and restructuring and workouts of troubled real estate projects. For the past several years, he has served as co-chair of NorthStar Conferences LLC, a series of law firm management programs that focus on numerous law firm leadership topics.

In 2001, Miller received the American Jewish Committee’s Judge Learned Hand Human Relations Award. He has been listed in the International Who's Who of Real Estate Lawyers and is a President’s Club member of the Real Estate Roundtable. He has been selected as one of America’s leading real estate lawyers by Chambers and Partners, recognized by Crain’s Chicago Business in their annual listing of Who’s Who in Chicago Business and designated an Illinois Super Lawyer in 2005 and 2006. Miller is the chair of the Jewish United Fund Lawyers Division and is on the Primo Center for Women and Children board of directors. He is a member of the Georgetown Law board of visitors and Corporate Counsel Institute advisory board. Miller earned a J.D from Georgetown Law in 1972.

After graduating from Georgetown Law in 1982, Tom O’Neil served for two years as a clerk to U.S. District Judge Alexander Harvey II. In 1986, he was appointed an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland. He went into private practice from 1990 to 1995 when he left to become vice president and chief litigation counsel of MCI Communications Corporation. He subsequently held several positions in the company, and in 2000, was named senior vice president and general counsel of The MCI Group. He joined DLA Piper in 2002.

O’Neil has been an adjunct faculty member at the American University Washington College of Law. He is a member of the Georgetown University board of regents, the Georgetown Law board of visitors and the Georgetown Law Corporate Counsel Institute advisory board. He also sits on the board of Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts and is the president of the board of trustees of the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, having previously served as a trustee of the Walters Art Museum. Washington SmartCEO magazine named him to its short list of Greater Washington’s Legal Elite and he is included in the most recent edition of Who’s Who in American Law. His wife, Nancy, is also a 1982 graduate of Georgetown Law.

Georgetown University Law Center is one of the world's premier law schools. It has the largest full-time faculty in the nation and is pre-eminent in several areas, including constitutional, international, tax and clinical law. Drawing on its Jesuit heritage, it has a strong tradition of public service and is dedicated to the principle that law is but a means, justice is the end. With this principle in mind, Georgetown Law has built an environment that cultivates an exchange of ideas and the pursuit of academic excellence. It brings together an extraordinarily varied group of teachers, scholars and practitioners, as well as an outstanding student body representing more than 60 countries.

About DLA Piper
DLA Piper has 3,400 lawyers in 25 countries and 64 offices throughout the U.S., U.K., Continental Europe, Middle East and Asia. It has leading practices in corporate, finance, human resources, litigation, real estate, regulatory and legislative, tax, and technology, media and communications. In certain jurisdictions, this information may be considered attorney advertising.

CONTACTS:
Jason Costa, Media Relations, DLA Piper, 212.776.3739
Laura Miller, Media Relations, GreenTarget Global Group, 312.252.4104