About Joel

Joel is a trial lawyer with 39 years of experience handling and trying some of the largest and most consequential business disputes coming out of the Pacific Northwest.  In 2020, Joel completed the representation of a Portland-based subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway in an international arbitration in New York City resulting in an award of Euro 643 million ($729 million) in favor of our client.  Joel represented an Oregon energy generator before FERC in Washington D.C. (decision pending) in which the state of California seeks to recover hundreds of millions of dollars of alleged overcharges related to the California Energy Crisis.  He represented Nike in its high-profile annexation dispute with the City of Beaverton, and the makers of 5-hour Energy in lawsuits brought by the Attorneys General of Oregon, Washington and Idaho alleging unfair trade practices.  Joel also tries cases to juries.  In 2019 he tried a $30 million condemnation action on behalf of Portland area’s transportation district, and in 2015 he tried the dispute over the failed construction of Portland’s Morrison Bridge on behalf of Multnomah County.  Joel also handles matters in the appellate courts and has argued before the Eighth and Ninth federal circuits and the Delaware Supreme Court.

Joel has been recognized by his peers for his work as a trial lawyer.  He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.  He was named Oregon’s Mergers and Acquisition Litigator of the Year in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2020 by Best Lawyers in America^©.  He is one of three Oregon lawyers designated as a “Band 1” litigator by Chambers & Partners USA.  Joel served several years as Firm Counsel of Stoel Rives and as a member of its Executive Committee.  Joel began his career as a lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice, where he represented the Bonneville Power Administration in the $1 billion lawsuit brought by investor-owned utilities arising out of the failed construction of a nuclear power plant.