Neal was elected to the Kirkland City Council in November 2019 and re-elected in November 2021. He’s a proud father, experienced and civic-minded lawyer, and dedicated public servant. He has been a resident of Kirkland for nearly 30 years, having lived in the Lakeview, Everest, and Central Houghton neighborhoods. He and his wife raised their two sons in Kirkland, and, for 10 years, he coached Kirkland American Little League at Everest Park.

Neal has a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Stanford University (1994) and a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University (1998). He’s a licensed member of the bar in Washington and Oregon. He has taught intellectual property and business law courses, as an adjunct professor and part-time lecturer, at the University of Washington School of Law (2009-2016), Seattle University School of Law (2008), and the Seattle University Albers School of Business and Economics (2007).

For over 15 years, Neal has been a partner at the law firm Phinney Black, where he advises business clients in the software technology and interactive entertainment software industries. Before joining Phinney Black, he was Vice President and General Counsel of Square Enix, a global developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software. He also previously served as Vice President and General Counsel of Emergent Payments, a provider of digital payment solutions for the interactive entertainment software industry. Since 2021, Neal also has been a member of the Board of Directors of Polyarc, a Seattle-based developer of virtual reality games. He began his legal career as a litigator at the Seattle law firm of Perkins Coie in 1998.

Neal has been involved in public policy and related community service for over 31 years. Since 2019, he has been a member of the Kirkland City Council. From 2014 to 2019, he was the chair of the Public Policy Committee of the King County Bar Association, where he is now a member of the Board of Trustees, addressing diversity in the legal profession, equal access to justice, and civil legal aid. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Pacific Science Center, helping deliver hands-on science education to students in Seattle and across the state. From 2007 to 2009, he was a member of the Board of Trustees of Washington Ceasefire, the leading organization in Washington at that time advocating for common sense gun safety legislation. Neal has also worked on public policy, as a law clerk and intern, for the White House Office on Environmental Policy (1994), the California State Assembly Natural Resources Committee (1993), the Environmental Defense Fund (1996), the US Department of Justice Environmental Defense Section (1997), and the Institute for Public Representation (1998).

In 2023, Neal received the 2023 Friend of the Legal Profession Award from the King County Bar Association. The award recognizes his role with a small team of King County lawyers who worked nationally to successfully encourage the American legal profession, through the American Bar Association, to adopt an official position that encourages the Justices of the US Supreme Court to adopt their own binding code of ethics. In 2023, Neal also received a Certificate of Municipal Leadership from the Association of Washington Cities (AWC).

Neal was born on Adak Island, near the southwestern edge of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. He grew up in a small town in Central Oregon’s high desert. His first paying job was at the age of 10, moving irrigation pipe in the fields for 10 cents a pipe. He received his first official paycheck at the age of 14, when he went to work in a lumber remanufacturing plant, a job he held through his sophomore year of college.

Education

Georgetown University Law School (Juris Doctor) (1998)

Stanford University (BS Civil/Environmental Engineering) (1994)

Current Work

Partner, Phinney Black LLP (2007-Present)

Councilmember, City of Kirkland (2019-Present)

Board Member, King County Bar Association (2018-Present)

Board Member, Polyarc, Inc. (2021-Present)

Board Member, Pacific Science Center (2024-Present)

Licenses

Member, Washington State Bar Association (1998-Present)

Member, Oregon State Bar (2004-Present)

Click here to learn more about Neal’s service to the community.