About Joel J.
Joel J. Block earned his J.D. from The John Marshall Law School in 1986. He completed law school at a time when Chicago’s courts were changing rapidly. Soon after graduation he moved into public service and began work in prosecution.
His first post was in the Cook County States Lawyers Office, where he served as a prosecutor beginning in 1986. The role put him inside the courtroom from the start of his career. He handled day-to-day trial work and the kinds of decisions that teach a lawyer how courts operate under pressure.
By 1990 he had shifted to private practice. That step broadened the scope of his work. He spent the early 1990s representing individual clients and adapting the trial skills he had developed in the county office to different legal problems.
In 1995 he joined GWC Injury Lawyers LLC as a senior associate. The move represented another change in emphasis. The title reflected a return to intensive casework and courtroom practice. At GWC he has been involved in litigation in state and federal forums and in matters that require coordination across jurisdictions.
His admissions include the state bars of Illinois and Arizona. He is also admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the Federal Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the Federal Trial Bar. Those credentials allow him to appear in a range of trial and appellate settings.
Colleagues describe him as a courtroom lawyer who learned his craft in a busy prosecutor’s office and then expanded into private litigation. He has handled trials, motion practice and client counseling over more than three decades. The progression from public prosecutor to private practitioner to senior associate gives him experience on both sides of the courtroom.
He maintains professional memberships and participates in bar activities. His record shows a long-standing engagement with the institutions that govern practice and procedure in the courts where he appears.
Today he is based at GWC Injury Lawyers LLC. He continues to litigate and to represent clients in matters that arise from accidents and injury. His practice concentrates on injury litigation at both the state and federal level.
