Task Force on
Gatekeeper Regulation and the Profession

Neal R. Sonnett heads his own Miami, Florida, law firm, concentrating on the defense of corporate, white collar and complex criminal cases and attorney ethics and disciplinary matters throughout the United States. He received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Miami School of Law and thereafter served as an Assistant United States Attorney and Chief of the Criminal Division for the Southern District of Florida from 1967 to 1972, when he entered the private practice of law.

Mr. Sonnett has been profiled by the National Law Journal as one of the "Nation's Top Litigators" and one of the "Nation's Top White Collar Criminal Defense Lawyers" and was selected three times by that publication as one of the "100 Most Influential Lawyers In America." He is included in every edition of The Best Lawyers in America and has been named as one of "South Florida's Top Lawyers" by Miami Metro Magazine and one of the four "Most Respected Attorneys in Miami" by the business newspaper Miami Today.

Mr. Sonnett is a former chair of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section, which he now represents in the ABA House of Delegates. He currently serves on the ABA Task Force on Gatekeeper Regulation and the Profession and has served as chair of the ABA Committee on Criminal Justice Improvements and the ABA Coordinating Committee on Immigration Law, and as a member of the ABA Coalition for Justice and the High Profile Trial Resource Team. He is a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the national Metropolitan Bar Caucus, the Florida Bar Foundation, the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Dade County Bar Association, and the Federal Bar Association, South Florida Chapter.

Mr. Sonnett is a Director and member of the Executive Committee of the American Judicature Society, president of the national Foundation for Criminal Justice, a Trustee of the Florida Bar Foundation Endowment Trust; and president of the Spellman-Hoeveler American Inn of Court in Miami.

Mr. Sonnett received the 2001 Charles R. English Award, the highest award of the ABA Criminal Justice Section, which honors lawyers who exemplify the highest standards of professional ethics and service to the criminal justice system. He received the 1997 Wm. Reece Smith Award for Public Service from Stetson University College of Law to honor "extraordinary commitment to public service activities," the 1993 Anti-Defamation League Jurisprudence Award for "distinguished service and inspiring leadership in preserving liberty, counteracting bigotry and advancing the cause of human rights," and the 1989 Florida Bar Foundation Medal Of Honor Award, the highest award that can be bestowed upon a lawyer by the legal profession in Florida, for"his dedicated service in improving the administration of the criminal justice system and in protecting individual rights precious to our American Constitutional form of government."

Mr. Sonnett has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law, has written and lectured extensively throughout the United States on trial practice and substantive legal subjects, and has testified many times before congressional committees on issues that affect the adversary system of criminal justice and constitutional rights. He serves on the Board of Advisors of the BNA Criminal Practice Manual and Money Laundering Alert.

Active in civic and charity work, Mr. Sonnett is vice-chair of the Florida Regional Board of the Anti-Defamation League, vice-president of The Friends of Gusman Performing Arts Center, a member of the Board of Trustees of The Foundation for Villa Vizcaya, chair of the Board of Governors of The Bankers Club, and a member of the University of Miami Society of Founders. He is past chair of the Board of Trustees of Transition, Inc., a non-profit charitable agency dedicated to the rehabilitation of ex-offenders, past president of the University Of Miami Law Alumni Association, past vice-president of the UM General Alumni Association, and served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Brickell Homeowners Association.

Mr. Sonnett served for three years, by appointment of the Miami-Dade County Commission, as chair of the county's Independent Review Panel, a civilian watchdog panel created by law to investigate serious complaints against county agencies and employees, including the police. He was also appointed by the Miami-Dade County Commission as a member of the Miami Metro Action Plan Trust Nominating Commission, and by appointment of the Florida Governor and Cabinet on the Florida Task Force On Drug Abuse And Dropout Prevention.