A Seeker of Justice. An Advocate for Accountability.
Joe McMullen is one of the nation’s top civil rights trial attorneys focusing on police brutality and in-custody deaths.
With extensive trial experience and a meticulous approach, Joe has a proven track record of success in both federal and state courts. He has:
- Taken on the government in over twenty-five high-stakes trials in federal and state courts throughout California and beyond.
- Obtained over $20 million in successful trial verdicts and financial settlements for his clients in challenging civil rights cases.
- Shared his expertise with plaintiff’s attorney organizations and trial teams as a sought-after jury trial specialist.
About Joe
A seasoned trial lawyer, Joe McMullen provides strategic, compassionate representation to individuals and families who have lost a loved one or suffered a catastrophic injury due to police or government official misconduct.
Joe is the founder and principal of the Law Offices of Joseph M. McMullen, with a nationwide civil rights trial practice headquartered in Southern California.
With offices in San Diego and Pasadena, Joe represents clients throughout Southern California. Joe also serves as trial counsel outside Southern California in select high-stakes cases, and he has tried or litigated cases in trial courts in Northern California, Nevada, Michigan, Texas, and beyond.
Joe has a proven track record for obtaining exceptional results at trial, especially when liability is hotly contested. He maintains an unwavering strategic focus on maximizing compensation for the losses suffered by his clients, and on holding abusive law enforcement officers and their agencies fully accountable for their actions.
Wherever the courtroom, Joe loves standing up for his clients in trial. Recently, in three consecutive months, Joe obtained successful plaintiff’s verdicts totaling nearly ten million dollars in three federal trials against U.S. Customs & Border Protection, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department, and the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department. He also enjoys helping newer and experienced plaintiff’s lawyers prepare for trials exposing government and corporate misconduct.
Since 2006, Joe has been litigating cases exposing constitutional violations by law enforcement officers, including officers of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (DHS), Customs & Border Protection (CBP), Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Marshals Service (USM), Federal Bureau of Investigation, (FBI) and other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, such as police and sheriff’s departments.
Joe is a former federal public defender and a staunch defender of constitutional rights. He founded the Law Offices of Joseph M. McMullen over a decade ago to combat government overreach and abuses, especially those impacting vulnerable populations.
Originally from Lake Oswego, Oregon, Joe graduated with a degree in economics and philosophy from Pomona College, one of the Claremont Colleges in Los Angeles County, where he was named Defensive Player of the Year as captain of its NCAA Division III football team. Before his law career, beginning in 2000 Joe was an analyst at top-ranked strategic consulting firm, Bain & Company. Bain’s focus on driving successful outcomes for clients by applying a results-oriented analytical approach to any obstacle has remained a guiding principle for Joe throughout his law career.
In 2006, shortly after obtaining his J.D. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, Joe successfully argued a civil rights case before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. See Green v. Young, 454 F.3d 405 (4th Cir. 2006). Soon after, Joe began as a trial attorney at nationally-renowned Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc., where he sharpened his litigation skills and amassed several trial victories in high-stakes cases against the federal government.
In 2010, Joe was hired by a venerable San Diego law firm to add federal litigation and trial experience to its litigation department. Joe’s practice at the firm focused on high-stakes federal and state litigation against government entities, including complex civil litigation involving securities fraud, False Claims Act, and qui tam actions, as well as complex federal criminal matters. While at the firm, Joe also served indigent clients accused of serious federal crimes as a member of the Criminal Justice Act panel for the Southern District of California.
In 2013, Joe founded the Law Offices of Joseph M. McMullen to hold law enforcement accountable for abusive tactics causing the needless loss of life and catastrophic injuries to individuals and their families. He is highly regarded as a trial specialist, teaching as an adjunct law professor for law students pursuing a Master of Laws degree in Trial Advocacy, graduating from the Trial Lawyer’s College in Wyoming in 2015, and frequently sought out by his fellow civil rights attorneys to serve as their trial counsel.
Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers consistently select Joe to their lists of top civil rights attorneys. Joe is also an expert at using cutting edge technology to distill the facts of his cases to their essence, and to present his client’s story in a meaningful and compelling way at trial. Business Insider featured Joe for his use of artificial intelligence to win a challenging civil rights case, and he is a frequent speaker for the National Police Accountability Project on harnessing technology to expose law enforcement misconduct at trial.
Joe speaks English and Spanish, and he is happy to consult with his clients and their families in both languages. Joe believes the only way to obtain complete justice for his clients is to fully explore the depths of his client’s story and the losses suffered, and become more prepared than opposing counsel for trial. With this approach, Joe has obtained over $20 million in trial verdicts and settlements for his clients.
In his downtime, Joe enjoys riding anything on two wheels (mountain bikes, beach cruisers, ebikes, off-road motorcycles, etc.) and exploring the great outdoors of the Southwest and Baja California with his wife, Camille, and their two kiddos.
