

Joel P. Johnston
Shareholder
Shareholder
Joel Johnston began his legal career with Hall Estill after graduating from law school in 2015. Prior to practicing law, he worked as an environmental and engineering consultant nationally, most recently co-managing the national oil and gas business sector for a nationwide consulting firm. He has significant experience with both the technical and commercial aspects of large infrastructure projects, but is also well versed in assisting small business owners with routine compliance matters.
Joel focuses his practice in three main areas:
Environmental - transactional, regulatory compliance and enforcement defense. Within this area he assists clients with matters related to compliance with air, water, and waste laws and regulations. He works with clients in the petroleum refining, renewable energy development, oil and gas exploration and production, industrial manufacturing, commercial/industrial land development, transportation, and waste management industries, among others.
Regulatory - transportation, cannabis, OSHA. In this area of his practice, Mr. Johnston routinely assists with regulatory compliance, permitting, and transactional matters. Because of his frequent entanglements with his environmental practice, he also assists clients with transportation law matters, including DOT enforcement defense, and penalty mitigation relating to hazardous materials transportation planning, permitting, and compliance, as well as with compliance related to safety-sensitive positions, and records management compliance.
Corporate Services - transactional, general contracting, formation, governance, litigation, bankruptcy. With a broad background as a business leader, and having served on several non-profit boards of directors, Joel is well versed in contract and commercial matters, especially in the energy sector.
Joel earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Tulsa College of Law with a certificate in Sustainable Energy & Resources Law. He served as a Notes & Comments Editor for the Energy Law Journal, and as staff of the ABA Year in Review. He was a Chesapeake Energy Corporation Scholar at the University of Tulsa College of Law. Joel is bar licensed in Oklahoma, Colorado and Wyoming, and a licensed geologist in Wyoming.