Joe Mueller, Co-Chair of WilmerHale’s Trial Practice, was recently inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers, the preeminent organization of trial lawyers in North America. The organization honors attorneys whose careers of notable courtroom achievements and contributions to the field place those lawyers at the forefront of the nation’s trial bar.
ACTL “thoroughly investigates each nominee for admission and selects only those who have demonstrated the very highest standards of trial advocacy, ethical conduct, integrity, professionalism and collegiality,” the organization says. The invitation-only fellowship consists of exceptional trial lawyers of diverse backgrounds from the United States and Canada.
Mueller is in the top tier of national trial lawyers for intellectual property cases. He is ranked in Band 1 by Chambers USA for intellectual property, and per feedback reported by IAM Patent 1000, “Joe is in the top 1% of patent trial lawyers of his generation.” In 2022, Mueller achieved the rare feat of leading billion-dollar-stakes cases in four intellectual property disciplines—patents, trademark, licensing and trade secrets—in three trials and a summary judgment hearing, in courts from coast-to-coast.
Mueller’s trial experience extends beyond intellectual property to many other types of trials, including civil trials involving wide-ranging subjects (e.g., antitrust, contract and fiduciary duty claims) as well as criminal trials. He has a special skillfulness in crafting trial strategies for high-stakes cases involving interdisciplinary and cross-jurisdictional (and sometimes cross-border) issues.
Among his many recognitions, he has been honored as an Intellectual Property Trailblazer by The National Law Journal, named the Lawyer of the Year for Patent Litigation and Intellectual Property Litigation in Massachusetts by Best Lawyers in America and is a three-time winner of Litigation Daily’s “Litigator of the Week.” Mueller was a finalist for the 2023 New England Litigator of the Year and Benchmark Litigation US Intellectual Property Litigator of the Year award.
Mueller serves as the Co-Chair of the WilmerHale Trial Practice alongside Hallie Levin—who is also a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, as are six other WilmerHale lawyers. The WilmerHale Trial Practice is among the top trial practices in the United States for the highest-stakes and highest-profiles trials in courts across the country.
Mueller also has considerable appellate experience and has argued before federal and state appeals courts including the United States Courts of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Fourth Circuit and Ninth Circuit. He has also worked on projects involving a wide array of government agencies and has spearheaded the formulation and implementation of policy strategies for interactions with those agencies.
Mueller has long demonstrated commitment to the legal system through public service, pro bono work and teaching and mentorship.
Earlier in his career, Mueller served as a Commonwealth of Massachusetts Special District Attorney in the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, where he prosecuted cases involving violent crimes, financial fraud and many other criminal offenses.
At the appointment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Mueller served as a Special Prosecutor for the Eastern District. He has also served on multiple special committees for the Eastern District.
Over the years, Mueller has devoted considerable time to pro bono service, working on significant pro bono matters involving disability rights, political asylum, detainee rights, public school disciplinary procedures and healthcare. He has received the Boston Bar Association's President's Award and the firm's John H. Pickering Award for his exemplary pro bono service.
Mueller graduated with honors from Harvard College and summa cum laude from Boston College Law School—where he has been an adjunct professor of law for 20 years. From 2004 to 2007, he held principal responsibility for the school’s international law advocacy programs—the Jessup International Law Moot Court program and the European Union Law Moot Court program. Since 2011, Mueller has taught a biennial course on patent litigation, and in 2023, he (along with WilmerHale partners Sarah Frazier and Marissa Lalli) taught a course on “Litigating With An Eye Toward Trial.”
Mueller lives in Rockport, Massachusetts, with his wife Allison, a former public school teacher who now works with several nonprofit organizations in northeast Massachusetts. They have two sons in college and a daughter in high school.