The U.S. Senate has confirmed Taylor McNeel of Pascagoula as the newest jurist for the Southern District of Mississippi.
McNeel was appointed by President Trump back in June upon the recommendation of Mississippi Senators Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith.
“Taylor McNeel’s academic, judicial, and personal qualifications are beyond reproach,” Wicker said. “He has distinguished himself as a practitioner of the law and demonstrated that he will interpret the law as written. His extensive experience will serve him well as a federal judge. I am delighted with Mr. McNeel’s bipartisan confirmation vote.”
“I am delighted the Senate has confirmed Taylor McNeel of Pascagoula to be a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi,” Hyde-Smith said. “Taylor’s extensive litigation experience made him a promising and well-qualified candidate for service on the federal judiciary. He is well-prepared to excel as a federal judge, and I am confident Taylor will serve the people of Mississippi with honor and distinction.”
Prior to his lifetime appointment to the federal bench, McNeel was a partner in the law firm of Brunini, Grantham, Grower, and Hewes, where he heads the Mississippi Gulf Coast office and has led a number of cases before the Mississippi Supreme Court, Mississippi Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
McNeel graduated cum laude from Ole Miss in 2005, where he was a member of the football team for two seasons and served as senior class president. In 2008, he graduated cum laude from the University of Mississippi Law School where he was a member of the Mississippi Law Journal.
He becomes the second jurist to be confirmed in the Southern District in recent weeks following the confirmation of Kristi Johnson on November 17th. Johnson, Mississippi’s first Solicitor General, became the district’s first female jurist.
