| Biography | Joel is a member in the firm's Boston office and practices in the Real Estate Section, where he served as Section Coordinator from 1984 to 1994. His practice primarily involves the representation of corporate users in retail and other commercial areas (R&D/lab facilities, office buildings, and health care facilities). Joel serves as national outside real estate counsel to CVS in its real estate acquisition, development, and financing program. He is also active on behalf of corporate users in the structuring and negotiation of significant commercial leases, including over two million square feet of biotechnology lab space. Joel has direct experience in the roles of real estate owner/developer/tenant, both as chairman of the firm's office space committee in negotiating, planning and constructing 350,000 square feet of first-class office space, and as chairman of the committee which built his synagogue, and subsequently its school, in Wellesley, Massachusetts. In recent years, his practice has concentrated on the development, construction, and financing of retail facilities, which reflects his long-standing representation of the firm's large corporate clients in their real estate development and leasing activities around the U.S. He has represented CVS in more than 40 sale/leaseback transactions. Those transactions involved more than 2,000 retail properties in over 35 states, having an aggregate value in excess of $6 billion. In December 2006, Joel represented CVS in the largest retail sale/leaseback in history, involving 340 stores in a $1.5 billion transaction. Joel is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and is a member of the Boston Bar Association and the International Association of Attorneys and Executives in Corporate Real Estate. He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania (1969), where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School (1972). Joel recently served as an Associate Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and as a Trustee of Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley. He also served recently as a member of the Wellesley Comprehensive Plan Coordinating Committee, which dealt with long-term growth and planning by-law reform. In 2004, 2005, 2008, and 2009, Joel was recognized as a Massachusetts Super Lawyer, in a listing published as a special supplement to Boston Magazine. Industries Construction Health Care Life Sciences Real Estate |