Freddie Fender Verified Attorney
Neal Andrew Davis
Criminal Defense · DUI / DWI Defense
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Freddie's Review
For 21 Years, a Life Sentence Stood. Then Neal Davis Helped Win Him Another Trial—and “Not Guilty.”
Twenty-one years is long enough for a life sentence to begin feeling permanent. A former Fort Worth police officer had spent that long behind bars when Neal Davis and the defense team persuaded Texas’s highest criminal court to confront the false testimony beneath his conviction. The judgment was set aside. At the retrial, jurors needed barely more than an hour to return a not-guilty verdict.
That result tells you more about Davis than a stack of polished credentials ever could. He has built his career inside the cases that arrive carrying maximum pressure: accusations of homicide, sexual assault, white-collar crime and other serious felonies capable of destroying a person’s freedom, livelihood and name. He does not merely negotiate around the edges of those cases. He takes them through investigation, trial and appeal.
Davis learned that work beside one of Texas criminal defense’s defining figures. After graduating from the University of Texas School of Law, he spent more than a decade practicing with Dick DeGuerin before founding Neal Davis Law Firm in Houston. He has since handled more than 1,000 state and federal criminal cases and earned Board Certification in Criminal Law from the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
His practice has also reached the United States Supreme Court. Davis served on the petitioner’s counsel team in Salinas v. Texas, the closely divided Fifth Amendment case that clarified the practical meaning of silence during voluntary police questioning. He later coauthored an article for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers explaining what the decision means when lawyers advise people facing interrogation.
But Davis’s most forceful argument is still his record in court. Between October 2023 and May 2025, he secured six not-guilty verdicts in child-sex trials. Three clients faced continuous-sexual-abuse allegations carrying 25 years to life. Two others faced aggravated-sexual-assault-of-a-child charges carrying five to 99 years. Every one of the six identified trials ended in acquittal.
The results extend well beyond that run. Davis represented a former NASA engineer facing seven sexual-assault charges and saw every charge dismissed two days before trial after a defense presentation that included extensive digital evidence and text messages. He represented a man arrested in a decades-old Houston murder investigation; prosecutors dismissed the charge after concluding the evidence could not prove the case. In federal court, Davis served as appellate counsel in United States v. Chenowith, where the Fifth Circuit vacated the conviction and sentence and ordered the indictment dismissed.
That courtroom standing has translated into leadership. Davis served as president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association during its 2019–2020 term. He has been selected to Texas Super Lawyers for 16 consecutive years, including three appearances on its Top 100 Houston list, while Best Lawyers has recognized him since 2015 in both general and white-collar criminal defense. He has also provided legal analysis for CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and Univision.
Clients encounter the same reach on a more personal level. Davis is fluent in English and Spanish, allowing him to speak directly with Spanish-speaking clients and their families when precision and trust matter most. Neal Davis Law Firm maintains a 5.0-star Google rating based on 83 reviews.
Past outcomes cannot guarantee a future result. They can, however, reveal what an attorney has already been willing and able to confront. Davis’s record shows a lawyer prepared to challenge devastating allegations, carry difficult cases through multiple levels of court and keep fighting long after the system appears to have reached its final answer.
That combination of experience, reputation, verified professional standing, and public credibility is why Neal Andrew Davis was included on FreddieFender.com.
Credentials
- Juris Doctor, University of Texas School of Law, 1998
- Bachelor of Arts with High Honors in Spanish and Comparative Literature, University of Southern California
- Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 2009
- Admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court
- Admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- Admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas
- Admitted to practice before the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas
- Admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
Career Highlights / Proven Experience
Career Highlights
- Firm Founder: Founded and leads Neal Davis Law Firm, PLLC, after spending more than a decade—from 1999 through 2010—practicing alongside nationally recognized criminal-defense attorney Dick DeGuerin at DeGuerin & Dickson.
- United States Supreme Court Counsel: Served on the petitioner’s counsel team in Salinas v. Texas, 570 U.S. 178 (2013), a closely divided United States Supreme Court case addressing whether a suspect must expressly invoke the Fifth Amendment during a voluntary, noncustodial police interview.
- Criminal-Defense Bar Leadership: Served as president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association during its 2019–2020 term, representing one of the country’s substantial local criminal-defense bars and advocating on matters involving due process, judicial independence and the rights of the accused.
- Sustained Peer Recognition: Selected to Texas Super Lawyers every year from 2011 through 2026 and named to its Top 100 Houston list in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Best Lawyers has recognized Davis since 2015 in both Criminal Defense: General Practice and Criminal Defense: White-Collar.
- Extensive State-and-Federal Practice: Has handled more than 1,000 state and federal criminal cases, representing clients from the investigative stage through trial and appeal in matters involving sex-crime allegations, homicide, intoxication offenses, fraud, and other serious felony charges.
- Published Criminal-Law Authority: Coauthored “Silence Is No Longer Golden: How Lawyers Must Now Advise Suspects in Light of Salinas v. Texas” for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ The Champion, translating the Supreme Court decision into practical guidance for defense attorneys.
- National Media Commentary: Has provided criminal-law analysis for CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and Univision in connection with nationally and internationally followed cases.
- Bilingual Advocacy: Fluent in English and Spanish, allowing Davis to communicate directly with Spanish-speaking clients and their families throughout the defense process.
- Exceptional Public Feedback: Neal Davis Law Firm maintains a user-verified 5.0-star Google rating based on 83 reviews.
Proven Experience
- Six Child-Sex Trial Acquittals in Twenty Months: Between October 2023 and May 2025, Davis secured not-guilty verdicts in six identified child-sex trials. The results included three continuous-sexual-abuse cases carrying reported exposure of 25 years to life, two aggravated-sexual-assault-of-a-child cases carrying potential sentences of five to 99 years and an indecency-with-a-child prosecution.
- Seven Sexual-Assault Charges Dismissed: Represented former NASA engineer Eric Sim and obtained dismissal of all seven sexual-assault charges two days before trial. Prosecutors reported insufficient evidence to prove most of the cases beyond a reasonable doubt, while one dismissal occurred at the requesting complainant’s request. Davis identified digital forensic evidence, including text messages, as instrumental to the defense presentation.
- Life Sentence Overturned and Client Acquitted: Working with the defense team, helped obtain a new trial for former Fort Worth police officer Brian Franklin after he had served 21 years of a life sentence. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals set aside the conviction after finding that false testimony deprived Franklin of due process; a retrial jury subsequently returned a not-guilty verdict after deliberating for just over an hour.
- Cold-Case Murder Charge Dismissed: Represented Chad Everett Bujano after his arrest in connection with a homicide committed approximately two decades earlier. Prosecutors ultimately dismissed the murder charge after determining that the available evidence could not prove the case.
- Federal Conviction and Sentence Vacated: Served as appellate counsel in United States v. Chenowith, where the Fifth Circuit vacated a federal felon-in-possession conviction and sentence. The court concluded that the client’s restored civil rights prevented the prior Ohio conviction from serving as the required predicate offense and remanded with instructions to dismiss the indictment.
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