Joe brings considerable experience as senior Congressional counsel to his role with Michael Best Strategies’ federal government relations team and the Michael Best legal team. Joe has a rare combination of experience, serving in senior roles in both the House and Senate for over 20 years. Joe’s experience includes:
- The only person to have served as the Chief Intellectual Property Counsel of both the House and Senate
- Deputy General Counsel and Deputy Staff Director of the Senate Judiciary Committee
- Chief Counsel of the Senate Budget Committee during the 2021 and 2022 reconciliation efforts
- Counsel, House Science Committee
- Counsel, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Joe works with his clients to identify their legislative needs to obtain successful outcomes. Joe leverages strong bipartisan relationships along with more than 25 years of government affairs experience creating, building, and leading public policy initiatives and coalitions for corporations, organizations, and other entities. He has been recognized as a legislative expert on numerous Judiciary and Budget Committee issues including extensive experience in intellectual property, antitrust, privacy, and technology policy issues.
While serving on the Senate Budget Committee, Joe coordinated the Republican response to the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and $1.2 billion Inflation Reduction Act. Within this role, he advised all other Committee Staff Directors on Congressional budget rules, and directly advised Senators on the Senate floor during four overnight vote-a-ramas. Joe was the primary point of contact with the Senate Parliamentarian on Byrd Rule challenges and jurisdictional inquiries.
In his previous role as General Counsel and Deputy Staff Director of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Joe coordinated multiple judicial priorities of Congress and the White House including moving federal judicial nominees including those to the U.S. Supreme Court through the Committee. His legislative responsibilities included all civil matters including copyright, trademark, and patent legislation, privacy, antitrust, arbitration, litigation funding, and artificial intelligence. Joe negotiated, drafted, and guided to enactment the 2020 intellectual property legislative package that created the Copyright Claims Board while also enacting a felony streaming provision. Previously, Joe guided to enactment the end of the Section 119 compulsory satellite license.
Earlier, Joe served as Chief Courts & Intellectual Property Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, during which time he focused on patent reform, an extensive 20-hearing copyright law review, and enactment of both the Music Modernization Act and the Defend Trade Secrets Act. The Music Modernization Act has already paid out over $1 billion in royalties to songwriters worldwide via the newly created Mechanical Licensing Collective of Nashville.
Joe currently teaches at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University and represents pro-bono clients before the Copyright Claims Board. Joe is also LEED AP certified.