Joel Phillip Nichols

Hello – I’m Joel Nichols and I’m a partner in the Deno Millikan Law Firm, PLLC. My practice focuses primarily on employment law, personal injury,family law, and criminal defense. I also enjoy advising small businesses on a variety of transactional and employment-related matters.

Although born in Massachusetts, I was raised by a single mother in Shoreline, Washington after my father was killed in action in Vietnam in 1970.

I grew up enjoying music, drama and sports. I didn’t think about becoming a lawyer until my freshman year in college when I had to fight the Social Security Administration to receive survivor benefits as a dependent of a deceased veteran.

I earned an English degree from the University of Washington in 1988, then attended law school at night while working full-time during the day as a service manager and dispatcher for a local heating oil company.

I obtained my law degree from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma in the summer of 1992, and was admitted to the Washington State Bar Association in 1993.

From 1994 through 1999, I had my own law practice in Seattle, representing individuals and small businesses in many of the areas of law in which I still practice today. In 1999, I became the Director of the Unemployment Law Project in Seattle, a non-profit legal services organization dedicated to fighting for people’s rights to receive unemployment benefits.

I also served on the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Committee of the Washington State Employment Security Department from 1999 to 2002.

In 2002, I joined the Deno Millikan Law Firm. Throughout my legal career, I have been an active member of what is now called the Washington State Association for Justice (WSAJ), and I was Chair of the Employment Section in 2005.

I have been a featured speaker on employment issues at numerous seminars, and have served as a part-time Administrative Law Judge with the State of Washington Office of Administrative Hearings.

I am also a member of the Washington Employment Lawyers Association (WELA), the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA), the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (WACDL), and the National College for DUI Defense (NCDD).I currently serve on the Board of Trustees of the Snohomish County Bar Association (SCBA).

When not practicing law, I enjoy spending time with my wife and daughter. I’m a lifelong music fan, with tastes ranging from Johnny Cash to Frank Zappa.

I’ve been a drummer and percussionist since I was ten, and have played in symphonic, rock, and jazz bands all my life. I’ve also had a lifelong passion for the outdoors, having hiked hundreds of miles in the Cascades and Rocky Mountains since my youth. I enjoy fishing, playing golf, swimming and biking. I also enjoy watching my daughter act and sing.