Joel Weintraub
Joel Weintraub has been practicing law for more than fifty years. He was born in Brooklyn, took his degree and his law degree at the University of Virginia, and was admitted in Virginia in 1973 — followed by the U.S. District Court the same year, the U.S. Tax Court in 1974, the U.S. Court of Claims in 1975 and the Fourth Circuit in 1978. He has also served as a Commissioner in Chancery for the Norfolk Circuit Court, which is to say the court has appointed him to hear matters on its behalf.
His work is civil litigation between individuals and corporations: corporate disputes, personal injury, business law, will and trust contests, shareholder rights, and estate administration. Those are the cases that sit where family, money and litigation intersect, and they reward someone who has watched all three behave over a long stretch of time. His clients’ reviews say almost nothing about tactics and almost everything about knowledge — the sense of dealing with a man who has seen this before.
He would rather you thought of the second half of his title than the first. “The phrase is ‘attorney and counselor at law,'” he says, “and I think that second part, being a counselor-at-law, is very important. Law can be a very stressful thing, especially for the client to whom everything is very, very strange.”
Joel belongs to the Norfolk and Portsmouth Bar Association and the Virginia State Bar, and serves as a Commissioner in Chancery for the Norfolk Circuit Court.
“The phrase is ‘attorney and counselor at law’ and I think that second part, being a counselor-at-law, is very important. Law can be a very stressful thing especially for the client to whom everything is very, very strange.”
He is a classically trained pianist, and took lessons for years under Carol Noona, Music Director at St. Gregory Church. His favorite place in Hampton Roads is a specific one: the square near the Fred Heutte Center, where Westover crosses Botetourt Gardens. Ask what he would have done instead of law and you get the best line at this firm: “I regret, very much, that I didn’t get the vacancy created by Johnny Carson.”
Ask what he is proudest of here and the answer turns serious in a way that is worth quoting in full: “Everyone here is someone that a client could feel comfortable with having a drink at a bar. We’re not all ‘stiff’.”
JOEL’S HIGHLIGHTS
Civil litigation, contested estates and shareholder disputes. Joel has practiced since 1973 and served as a Commissioner in Chancery for the Norfolk Circuit Court.
AREAS OF PRACTICE
- Personal Injury
- Wills and Estate
- Real Estate
- Litigation
BAR ADMISSIONS
- Commonwealth of Virginia, 1973
- U.S. District Court, Eastern Virginia, 1973
- U.S. Tax Court, 1974
- U.S. Court of Claims, 1975
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, 1978
EDUCATION
- The University of Virginia – B.A., 1968
- The University of Virginia – J.D., 1973
PROFESSIONAL AND CIVIC ASSOCIATIONS
- Norfolk Bar Association
- Portsmouth Bar Association
- Virginia State Bar
- Commissioner in Chancery, Norfolk Circuit Court
IF YOU NEED HELP, TALK TO JOEL TODAY
The Decker Law Firm is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for free consultations. Fill out the form below and a member of our team will be in touch promptly — because when something important is on the line, waiting shouldn’t be part of the process.