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Overview

With a professional background in mortgage lending, Joel assists clients with complex real estate transactions.

After earning an undergraduate business degree, Joel worked for nine years in the mortgage lending industry, working in a national loan company’s compliance solutions department. Joel’s role was to design software enhancements that took into account the myriad regulatory differences in states across the country. He was fascinated by the complexity of rules and the principles behind them, but at the same time, he often found himself frustrated by the difficulty of implementing the less-than-straightforward answers that came back from the legal department. Joel was attracted to the idea of making the strategic legal predictions these attorneys did—with more of an eye to how advice would play out on the ground in a business setting.

Joel enrolled in law school, where he had the opportunity to assist in a professor’s research on property and serve as a summer associate on Husch Blackwell’s real estate team. He also spent a summer interning in the legal office of the Missouri Public Service Commission, working on highly complex matters for massive public utility companies. The internship showed Joel the intricacies of multimillion dollar transactions for large entities.

Today, Joel assists clients with real estate transactions and financing. His pre-law experience means he knows the lending world backwards and forwards, and he’s excited to work on complex deals for major companies. Joel is known for providing creative solutions to client challenges—and for making sure that clients always receive full answers that fit their business situation.

Services

Education

  • J.D., University of Missouri School of Law
    • cum laude
    • Journal of Dispute Resolution, Note and Comment Editor
    • Tax and Transactional Law Society Competition, Finalist
  • B.S.B.A., University of Missouri
    • cum laude

Admissions

  • Missouri
2024 Pro Bono Contributor
Outside the Office

Joel loves animals and has three cats and a dog at home. More unusually, he also has seven turtles, three of whom were bred by him and his wife in the early days of covid. With a lifelong love of reptiles and amphibians fostered by growing up near a pond, Joel has kept turtles since childhood.

Joel also plays the drums and previously played in bands, before law school and legal practice began to take up more of his time.