Joel graduated from New York University with a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering. He began his career as a computer designer with IBM Corporation spending extended periods in Great Britain and Germany coordinating hardware and software design efforts of IBM's European and American laboratories on several "mainframe" computers. He then attended law school at Fordham University in New York where he was a member of the Fordham Law Review. Upon graduating law school, Joel worked as a patent attorney with Darby & Darby, P.C., a nationally known Patent and Trademark firm. Joel came to Atlanta in 1985 to establish and head the in-house patent department at Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.(a Fortune 250 provider of cable television equipment). In 1988, he joined Troutman Sanders, L.L.P. to form its patent and trademark department, and led that department until the end of 2000, having grown it to over twenty attorneys. Joel has experience in all phases of U.S. and foreign intellectual property law, including patent, trademark and copyright prosecution, litigation and licensing. Joel's current practice focuses on counseling companies in the development, enforcement and use of intellectual property, especially with regard to telecommunications and business methods. Joel is the Past Chair of the Atlanta Chapter of the Licensing Executive Society of the United States and Canada (LES), and Past Chair of the China committee of the LES. He was also Chair of the Asia Practice Committee of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA). He served as the Chair of the Patent, Trademark and Copyright section of the Georgia Bar in 1993-94 and chaired the special committee of the Georgia Bar which drafted the Georgia Trade Secrets Act of 1990. Joel has spoken frequently in the United States and Asia regarding intellectual property law issues and his views on business method patents have been quoted in publications such as Entrepreneur, Of Counsel, and Inside Litigation. Among his publications are: "New Regulations May Heighten Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in China," Intellectual Property & The Law (Summer 1998), "Patentability of Business Methods," Intellectual Property & The Law (Fall 1996), "Building a Flexible Practice Group Structure," Law Firm Governance (Summer 1999), "The State Street Bank Case -- Its Implications to Financial Institutions," Intellectual Property Today, (January 1999), "Yes, Your Method of Doing Business is Patentable (Increased Protection for Software Inventions)," Intellectual Property & The Law (Winter 1999). Joel offers specialized expertise in a wide variety of intellectual property and technology placements including recruiting of Intellectual Property associates and partners, assisting corporations and law firms in establishing Patent Departments.