Neil Toppel graduated with Distinction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996 with a Bachelor of Art’s degree in Behavior Science & Law. He received the UW Political Science Department’s Davis Award for best student performance in the field of constitutional law and judicial process.

Immediately following his graduation from University of Wisconsin, Mr. Toppel attended Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he received Cali Awards for excellence in the fields of Criminal Procedure-Adjudicative Process (Fall 1997) and Forensic Science (Fall 1998). While at Kent, he studied civil rights litigation under renowned Section 1983 scholar Sheldon Nahmod. Mr. Toppel received his Law Degree with Honors from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1999.

Before joining the Cook County Public Defender’s Office in March 2000, Mr. Toppel worked as an attorney handling first amendment, police brutality, gender and race discrimination litigation. Mr. Toppel left the Felony Trial Division of the Cook County Public Defender after spending more than 4 and a half years with the Office of the Public Defender. During his tenure with the Public Defender, Mr. Toppel handled hundreds of misdemeanor and felony cases, and presented lectures on Illinois Criminal Procedure to Illinois attorneys. In the Fall of 2004, Mr. Toppel and Richard Dvorak, his friend and colleague from the Cook County Public Defender’s Office, formed the partnership of Dvorak & Toppel.

Mr. Toppel is a member of the Illinois Bar, the general and trial bars for the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago), the Bar of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, as well as a member of the Bar of the United States District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin (Milwaukee), and a member of the United States District Court, Central District of Illinois (Springfield).

In August of 2010, Mr. Toppel was recently appointed by Illinois Governor, Patrick Quinn to serve as a commissioner on the newly formed Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission. The commission investigates allegations of police torture throughout the state.

In September of 2010 Mr. Toppel was also selected to serve as a Criminal Justice Act Panel Attorney for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois where he was appointed by the courts to represent federally charged criminal defendants.