Joseph Wells (Joel) Ellinwood, AICP - Principal of the firm

After graduating from the local public high school he followed in his father's footsteps by enrolling at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, the most liberal of the liberal arts colleges of its day. While there he had the opportunity to personally interview Arthur Morgan, himself a student of community building, one of Antioch's most influential former presidents and the first head of the Tennessee Valley Authority under Franklin Roosevelt. Another inspiration was a visiting lecture by Ian McHarg, author of Design with Nature, whose presentation began with the iconic Blue Marble photograph of earth taken from space by the Apollo program astronauts. Antioch's first president, 19th century educational reformer Horace Mann, famously charged Antioch students to "be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." Joel worked as a photographer for the student newspaper and performed in a college production of Ibsen's The Wild Duck. While an Antioch student, he held cooperative jobs as a high school student ombudsman, VISTA volunteer at one of the branches of Hull House in Chicago founded by Jane Adams where he taught photography and film making in a low income mixed ethnic neighborhood, assistant to Antioch's Dean of the Faculty, and special assistant for student affairs to the New Jersey Commissioner of Education. He studied abroad at Antioch field centers in Guanajuato, Mexico and London, England.

Joel began preparation for a career in education by attending Harvard Graduate School of Education in a Master of Arts in Teaching program, later transferring to a doctoral program at the University of Massachusetts School of Education having been admitted at the personal prerogative of Dean Dwight Allen. During that period Joel served as the statewide coordinator for a high school and college student organization he helped found, the New Jersey Student Union. He co-wrote the New Jersey Student Rights Manual, published with the New Jersey Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. The Manual was recently re-published and updated by the New Jersey State Bar Association.

Joel took a sojourn from professional education to collaborate in experimental multi-media productions with a friend who was a graduate student at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. He then worked as a professional photographer and director of an ACLU field office in Atlantic City, NJ.

With a renewed sense of purpose, Joel entered the joint degree program in Law and City & Regional Planning at Rutgers University, at its New Brunswick and Camden campuses. Joel worked part-time as a research assistant at the Center for Urban Policy Research, a teaching assistant in planning law, and for a summer served as the assistant director of the Neighborhood Development Program for the City of Plainfield, New Jersey. Joel returned to Atlantic City as a housing policy advocate for Cape-Atlantic Legal Services on behalf of low-income residents, where after graduation from law school and admission to the New Jersey Bar, he served for four and a half years as a Staff Attorney in both its Altantic City and Cape May Court House offices.

While still living in New Jersey, Joel studied for and passed the California Bar Examination. In September 1984 he became a Staff Attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) in its Marysville office where his practice emphasized housing and employment law issues. In 1987 he joined Marysville attorney Charles Poulos in representing a Yuba City based developer who was embroiled in civil litigation stemming from the Savings & Loan crisis. When the client became the target of a federal criminal investigation in Oregon Joel associated with a Portland-based white collar criminal defense attorney and served as co-counsel through the pre-indictment, trial, appellate and post-conviction proceedings.

Joel established his own civil practice in Yuba City and Marysville, becoming vice-president and general counsel for a development company proposing a golf-course and residential project in Sutter County. In that capacity he wrote, qualified for the ballot, and served as spokesperson for a general plan and zoning code initiative measure on behalf of the project - made necessary by a prior initiative passed by a previous owner of the project site For two years he was associated with the Sinclair Wilson firm in Roseville. During the period 2000 - 2003 he obtained his real estate broker's license and performed site acquisition and land use entitlement consulting work for wireless telecommunications companies Sprint and Verizon Wireless throughout central and northern Caliifornia. In 2004 he joined the Sacramento based land use and environmental law firm Abbott & Kindermann, LLP as senior associate and headed its litigation practice. In early 2008 he joined Best Best & Krieger as of counsel in its Sacramento office, but left to establish his own land use and environmental law firm closer to his home so that he could live his commitment to practice law and provide planning services to help create a more just and sustainable future.

Joel is married to Sandra Russett, a career educator and child advocate. They have a daughter, Samantha, who is now enrolling in medical school with the goal of becoming a pediatrician specializing in autism. Joel and Samantha have enjoyed performing together in many community theatre productions over the years in Yuba City, Marysville, Roseville and Sacramento. Joel also appeared in productions at Chico State University and Yuba College. For two years Joel was president of the board for Beckwourth Frontier Days, a living-history festival in Marysville, and served on the board and as general counsel of the Magic Circle Theatre in Roseville, helping facilitate its rennovation of the historic Roseville and Tower Theatres on Vernon Street as venues for live theatre, with the assistance of the City of Roseville.  He enjoys tennis, skiing, sailing, hiking, and an infrequent round of golf.  He reads history, biography, social commentary and occasionally fiction.