Joel A. Schoenmeyer is an Oak Park, Illinois-based attorney whose practice is focused on the areas of estate planning (wills and trusts), probate administration (including probate litigation), and residential real estate. He serves as co-chair of the planned giving committee for the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Joel is also the author of "Family Limited Partnerships and the Investment Company Rules," which appeared in the May/June 2001 edition of Probate & Property, and for which he won that publication's "2001 Excellence in Writing Award for Best Cutting Edge Article - Probate & Trust."

Before striking out on his own, Joel practiced estate planning and probate law at three different law firms in downtown Chicago: Sidley & Austin (now Sidley Austin Brown & Wood), Sachnoff & Weaver, and Barnes & Thornburg.

Joel received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School (Ann Arbor, Michigan) in 1996, where he also worked as a research assistant for professors Carl Schneider and Takashi Maruta, and taught argumentative writing to undergraduates through U of M's Pilot Program.

Prior to attending law school, Joel spent a year working for the Japanese Ministry of Education as a member of the Jet Programme. Joel taught high school English at two high schools in Nagahama, Japan, a city of approximately 60,000 located in Shiga prefecture.

Joel obtained his undergraduate degree (a B.A. in English with High Honors) from Michigan State University (East Lansing, Michigan) in 1992, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and MSU's 1991 Homecoming Court, and president of the university's chapter of the Circle K International service organization.

Joel, who grew up in Marshall, Michigan, now lives in Oak Park with his wife, Ruth (a commercial real estate attorney with the law firm of Jenner & Block), and his daughter, Sophia (born in September of 2001).