As General Counsel & Secretary at Humanity United, Joel is responsible for leading the organization’s legal function and counseling the staff and Board of Trustees on a variety of legal, governance, operational and risk-management matters. He also serves as corporate secretary. During his time at HU, Joel has held a number of roles and managed a range of special projects, from the creation of HU’s early stage program-related investment fund, Working Capital, to the corporate restructuring of HU and its affiliated public charity and social welfare organizations.
Prior to joining HU, Joel was an attorney with Adler & Colvin, a San Francisco-based law firm dedicated to assisting tax-exempt organizations and philanthropists. In his role at Adler, he assisted a variety of private foundations, public charities, social welfare organizations, and high net-worth individuals with tax planning and compliance, corporate, and charitable trust law matters. Joel began his legal career as a corporate transactional associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in Palo Alto, where he advised clients on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, private fund formation, and securities law. He has also served in a legal and business affairs role at the Skoll Foundation and the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, and as a legal intern on the Affirmative Litigation Task Force at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office. Prior to his legal career, Joel served as the Assistant Political Director and Assistant Finance Director for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s political organization.
Joel holds a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in political science and philosophy from Loyola University Chicago, and a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a Business Law Certificate and served as the senior executive editor of the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law. He is a frequent speaker and writer on issues affecting strategic philanthropy.