Joseph P. Hoag
Partner
Joseph Hoag’s mission is to help clients solve their employment law problems, whether that means advising clients in technical areas like background checks and occupational safety and health, or representing clients in court or administrative hearings. Joseph works hard to understand his clients’ concerns and how those concerns fit within the larger picture. “If my clients’ lives are not easier after talking with me, I have failed.”
Joseph represents clients in myriad employment claims, including discrimination, retaliation, failure to accommodate, and wrongful termination. He has achieved success for his clients at all levels of state and federal litigation, from prevailing in dispositive motions and successfully defending those victories in state and federal courts of appeals, to successfully defending clients in bench or jury trials. Joseph has extensive, nationwide experience counseling and representing clients with regard to occupational safety and health laws and interactions with federal OSHA and state agencies like Washington State DOSH and Cal-OSHA. Joseph has also developed a specialized, nationwide practice regarding employment background checks and the complex, technical, and unintuitive obligations imposed by overlapping federal, state, and local laws.
Practice Highlights
Occupational safety and health
Employment litigation and counseling
Fair Credit Reporting Act/Background checks
Admitted to Practice
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Washington
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U.S. Court of Appeals 7th Circuit
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U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit
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U.S. District Court Western District of Washington
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U.S. District Court Eastern District of Washington
Education
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J.D., Harvard Law School, 2009
- Executive Editor, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy
- President, Harvard Student Chapter, J. Reuben Clark Law Society
- Research Assistant, Professor Guhan Subramanian, Corporate Law
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B.S., Psychology, Brigham Young University, 2005, magna cum laude
- Dean's List
- Golden Key Honor Society
- Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), Utah State Courts
Memberships & Affiliations
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- Board Member and Secretary, MS Helping Hands – The Donor Closet
- Former Board Member, Excel Public Charter School
Background
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- Extern, Hon. Ronald B. Leighton, Federal District Court for the Western District of Washington, Tacoma, Wash., 2010
- Judicial Clerk, Justice James M. Johnson, Washington State Supreme Court, Olympia, Wash., 2009-2010
- Extern, U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts, Criminal Division, Boston, 2007
- Summer Intern, U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Office of Policy and Legislation, Washington, D.C., 2007