U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS                       ST. CROIX        ~           ST. THOMAS        ~         ST. JOHN

JOEL H. HOLT - BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY

Born in Ohio in 1951, Joel Holt was raised in Blacksburg, Virginia, where his father was a professor at Virginia Tech. He attended Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, obtaining a B.A. degree in 1973.

He subsequently attended the University of Richmond Law School. By the time of his graduation, he was first in his class and was on the editorial board of the Law Review. While in Law School, he worked for the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Legislature for the Commonwealth of Virginia and several private law firms, including McGuire, Woods and Battle in Richmond.

People always ask how Joel became a lawyer in the Virgin Islands. In this regard, upon graduation, Joel applied to various federal judges for a clerkship. Judge James Turk from the Western District of Virginia extended him a job offer which he accepted. Shortly thereafter, Judge Warren Young from the District Court of the Virgin Islands also offered him a position as a law clerk as well. At Judge Turk’s encouragement, Joel accepted the job offer in the Virgin Islands. In August of 1977, Joel moved to the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, planning to return to Virginia to practice law after his clerkship.

While on St. Croix, Joel realized that there was an excellent opportunity to establish a law practice in the Virgin Islands, so he stayed. He has had his own law firm since 1979, engaging in the general practice of law, but specializing in litigation. His law firm has included several other lawyers from time to time, including a current Justice of the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands.

Joel Holt has been featured in American Lawyer for his trial work and has obtained numerous verdicts in excess of $1,000,000. He has also been involved in multiple complex commercial cases. His most recent jury verdict was in January of 2010 where he obtained a defense verdict for his commercial client, despite the plaintiff’s damage calculation well in excess of $10,000,000.

Aside from his family and practice of law, Joel likes to bike, swim and jog. He has completed numerous triathlons and marathons since 2004.

Joel Holt’s favorite case stemmed from the 1997 budget impasse between Congress and President Bill Clinton. When Clinton attempted to shut down all national parks, Holt argued that the federal government lacked the authority to close Buck Island National Park in the Virgin Islands. He noted that when President John F. Kennedy declared Buck Island a national park, he did so with the provision that the park could never be closed. A local judge agreed and the Park reopened, being the only national park opened until the budget impasse was resolved.