Love of law keeps O’Neill going

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A litigator for the past 46 years, Bruce O’Neill shows no sign of slowing down.

“I don’t know what I would do if I retired,” the shareholder at Fox, O’Neill & Shannon SC, said. “I’m so lucky I found a profession that I really love and am excited still every Monday morning to get into the office.”

O’Neill has a full load of civil commercial and complex family law cases, and he works on each of them with the same passion.

“My son, when he was younger, once asked me which case was my most important and I said, honestly, ‘they all are,’” O’Neill said. “Every case is important to that client. It may be the difference between a business that stays open or closes or the difference between a family staying together or not. If it matters to my clients, it matters to me.”

After nearly five decades, O’Neill has witnessed many changes, the biggest being an increase in alternate dispute resolution and mediation.

“There are fewer cases going to trial, but for me, there’s nothing more exciting and nerve-wracking than a jury trial,” he said. “There’s always drama and you always learn something by going through the process.”

Diane Slomowitz, who has worked with O’Neill for 32 years, said he’s the best litigator in the state – if not the country.

“I have seen firsthand Bruce’s consistently accurate case analyses, which begin with his intuitive grasp of the legal and factual issues, themselves always confirmed by my research,” she said. “I have heard countless times, ‘I know there’s a case …’ and each time, he’s right. It’s uncanny.”

While O’Neill has a broad range of experience, he’s perhaps best noted for his efforts on the state’s Fair Dealership Law litigation. He won one of the first published decisions under the law in 1979 and continues to litigate the statute.

“It was a big case, but I’m invested in all my cases,” O’Neill said. “I want to get in there and do the best job possible for my clients.”

And despite a heavy caseload, O’Neill still makes time to mentor younger attorneys at the firm and work on pro bono cases.

“You don’t have to look too hard for the pro bono cases, they come to you,” he said. “To me, it just feels right to give back and help. It’s just part of who I am.”