After graduating from Anamosa High School, Joel attended college at the University of Iowa. When he started college, his plan was to become a broadcast journalist. To gain journalism experience and earn a few dollars for spending money in college, Joel wrote freelance newspaper articles while he was a college student. After his junior year of college, Joel interned with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. He worked with prosecutors who handled felony prosecutions occurring in the District of Columbia. It was this first taste of the legal system that convinced Joel to take the law school entrance exam and see if he could get into law school.
Joel graduated with honors from the University of Iowa with undergraduate degrees in both Journalism and Political Science. He was accepted to law schools throughout the Midwest and East Coast but decided to stay in Iowa and attend the University of Iowa College of Law. During his final year of law school, Joel served as an Articles Editor for the Journal of Corporation law reviewing and editing articles submitted by professors for publication.
Joel moved west to Bakersfield following law school to avoid the harsh Iowa winters. Since beginning as a lawyer, Joel has represented injured parties in personal injury cases and wrongful death cases in California, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, and Iowa. He also has handled civil rights cases, employment cases, and business litigation cases. Joel has tried cases in both state courts and federal courts that have resulted in multimillion-dollar verdicts, including a record-setting $35 million motor collision verdict in Iowa, and also has settled cases totaling millions of dollars.
In 2017, Joel was recognized by Continental Who’s Who as a Pinnacle Lifetime member in the legal field. Also in 2017, Joel was recognized by the Expert Network as an Expert Network Distinguished Professional in the legal field.
TopVerdict.com honored Joel for having one of the top 50 civil settlements in 2016 in California.
In 2015 and 2016 he was honored as one of the “10 Best” in Southern California for client satisfaction by the American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys. In recent years, Joel also has been nominated for Best Attorney in the Bakersfield Californian Best of Kern awards.
When he isn’t practicing personal injury law in Bakersfield, Joel has served on several boards of directors including the Kern County Bar Association Board of Directors and the Kern County Law Library Board of Trustees for over 15 years.
Joel believes it is important to give back to the community by lending his time and financial support to organizations. He currently serves as the immediate past President of the CSU Bakersfield Roadrunner Scholarship Fund. The Roadrunner Scholarship Fund is committed to raising scholarship money for the CSU Bakersfield student athletes and in recent years has raised over $1 million annually for scholarships.
In addition, Joel serves as a committee member on the CSU Bakersfield Runners On The Rise fundraising campaign whose goal is to raise $55 million by June 2024 for CSU Bakersfield students, faculty, and programs.
Joel and his wife Connie have donated over $250,000 to CSU Bakersfield to provide CSU Bakersfield students opportunities to transform their lives and lead them to success in their careers.
Joel served from 2018 to 2022 as a school board member for Bakersfield Christian High School. He is a member of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Bakersfield.
In his spare time, Joel played basketball for over 20 years in various Bakersfield city basketball leagues. Joel enjoys spending quality time with his wife Connie, and children, Connor, Jilian, and Valentina. He also loves to exercise and attends the University of Iowa and CSU Bakersfield sporting events where he is a season ticket holder.
