Joe was born in Winchester, Virginia. He is licensed to practice before all North Carolina State Courts and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. He is a member of the Lenoir County, Eighth Judicial District, North Carolina, and American Bar Associations.
Having previously served as president of the Lenoir County and Eighth Judicial District Bar Associations and Chairman of the Eighth Judicial District Bar Candidates Committee, Joe is also a member of the North Carolina Land Title Association and the Real Property and Business Sections of the North Carolina Bar Association.
Joe’s practice is concentrated in the areas of residential and commercial real estate, title claims litigation, foreclosures, condemnation / eminent domain, business law, and corporate law. Joe has also been an instructor of real estate law for candidates preparing for the North Carolina Real Estate Licensing Examination.
Joe attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1973. He then attended East Carolina University where he received an M.B.A. degree in 1976. While in business school, he was awarded a graduate fellowship in economics.
After graduating cum laude from the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University, Birmingham, Ala., in 1979, he was admitted to the North Carolina State Bar that same year.
- Business North Carolina’s Legal Elite in the area of Real Estate, 2015
- Martin Dale Hubble® Lawyers.com AV® Preeminent™ rating award recipient in both legal ability and ethical standards, 2010
- Counsel to the Kinston Housing Authority, North Lenoir Water Corporation, Deep Run Water Corporation, the Homebuilders’ Association of Kinston and the Kinston Board of Realtors.
- Active member of the Lenoir Committee of 100 and serves on its board of directors
- Represented a developer of a strip shopping center in a conduit loan financing transaction.
- Represented a fast food restaurant franchisee in a multi-site loan financing transaction using a single entity bankruptcy remote limited liability company.
- Represented several non-profit corporations in loan financing transactions with the U.S. Housing and Urban Development with respect to multiple elderly housing apartments.