Bloomfield, Allan R.

Joel Block has been with the law firm of GWC since February 1995. As an attorney concentrating in the area of Workers’ Compensation, Joel is one of the 3 most senior associates at GWC. Since joining the firm, Joel has been able to negotiate settlements in hundreds of cases for his clients. Joel has consistently made it his practice to maximize the value of his clients’ cases, whether that is accomplished by settlement, trial or appeal. In his practice, Joel has been able to negotiate individual settlements in the range of $150,000 to $400,000 for some of his most seriously injured clients.

Born and raised in Chicago, Joel is the son of a member of the Teamsters Union.  Joel is a ten-year police department veteran, who attended The John Marshall Law School while working as a full time police officer. He earned his J.D. degree in January 1986. After graduation, Joel was hired by the Cook County States Attorneys Office, and served as a prosecutor in the Criminal Division for three years. While there, he was assigned for a short period of time to the traffic division, before being transferred to Suburban District 3. As a prosecutor, Joel prosecuted cases in the criminal trial division, as well as being assigned to felony review, where he would review cases brought by police departments, for approval of felony charges. He conducted felony preliminary hearings, and acted as first chair prosecutor in over twenty jury trials.

Joel left the State Attorney's Office in 1990 to enter private practice. Since that time, his area of focus has been representing injured workers in Workers’ Compensation cases. He handles cases in Chicago (Cook County), Ottawa (LaSalle County) , and Woodstock (McHenry County).

Joel is especially familiar with the special problems encountered by police officers and firefighters who have been injured at work and has represented many members of both the police (FOP) and firefighters (AFFI) unions. In addition to being licensed to practice law in the State of Illinois and the State of Arizona, Joel is licensed to practice by the Federal Court for the Northern District of Illinois and is also a member of the Federal Trial Bar. In April 1995, he was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.