Phillip Joseph chairs Ball Janik LLP’s national construction litigation practice, and is licensed in multiple states to better serve his clients.  Before joining Ball Janik, Mr. Joseph clerked for a federal court judge, where he was involved in many federal trials and proceedings.  He has over 30 years’ experience as a commercial litigator whose primary focus is construction and real estate litigation, specializing in representing a wide-range of owners with construction defect issues.  He has also handled design and construction disputes, community association disputes, real estate disputes, commercial landlord/tenant, and collections. Mr. Joseph has received the AV® Preeminent™ Rating from Martindale–Hubbell®.

Mr. Joseph has also successfully prosecuted and defended a wide range of construction defect cases on behalf of owners, ranging from residential projects, including large residences, subdivisions, condominiums/townhomes, as well as commercial projects, such as apartments, hotels, offices, retail stores, warehouses, restaurants, retirement facilities, and shopping centers. He has also represented public projects including schools, state office buildings, stadiums and venues, among others. His guidance and leadership in the construction defect practice group has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in recoveries on behalf of owners from national builders.

In addition to representing owners in construction defect matters, Mr. Joseph also has extensive experience litigating multi-million dollar construction disputes including construction lien litigation, late delivery, extra/changed work and impact claims, Little Miller Act claims, and insurance coverage for construction disputes. With respect to design/build construction projects, Mr. Joseph has defended multi-million dollar claims for additional compensation. Previously, he represented, tried, and obtained a verdict in favor of an international wafer chip fabrication facility against $20+million claims by a design/build contractor of a clean-room facility; represented and settled claims against the owner of two large apartment projects against million dollar claims by a design/build subcontractor; and defended and settled claims against the developer of a large-scale apartment and condo project in Tacoma, Washington from multi-million dollar claims of a design/build contractor; and represented and settled claims against the owner of a paper-making plant by the design/build contractor responsible for re-piping and overhauling a paper manufacturing machine.

He is the recipient of several honors, including selection to The Best Lawyers in America for Litigation – Construction and for Community Association Law since 2017.

Mr. Joseph has lectured widely and authored articles on construction defect and real estate litigation issues, including speaking to numerous community association organizations, including CAI and to the College of Community Association Lawyers at their annual convention. He was also the editor of the Real Estate Disputes CLE for the Oregon State Bar.

Education

• J.D., 1988, University of Washington School of Law
• B.A., summa cum laude, Finance, 1984, University of Oregon

Honors

• The Best Lawyers® in America list, 2017 – 2025
• Super Lawyers Magazine, Oregon Super Lawyers list, 2009 – 2010
• AV® Preeminent™ Rating, Martindale–Hubbell®, American Registry

Admissions