Cordell & Cordell Co-Founder and Principal Partner and DadsDivorce sponsor Joseph E. Cordell recently was named selected as one of 27 attorneys to receive the ICON Award from Missouri Lawyers Weekly for notable and sustained success and leadership both within and beyond the field of law.
Launched in 2018, the ICON Awards are presented to distinguished attorneys age 60 and older in recognition of their exemplary careers and commitment to the Missouri legal community. Honorees must hold or have held a senior position with significant decision-making authority with the firm or organization. Click here to read more about the ICON Awards qualifications.
The list of 2019 honorees includes founding partners, judges, and public officials. Mr. Cordell and the rest of the 2019 honorees will be celebrated at the second annual ICON Awards luncheon from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, May 31, at the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis, Mo. Honorees also will be profiled in print and online in a special section of Missouri Lawyers Weekly published May 27.
Throughout his career, Mr. Cordell has worked diligently to better the legal community in Missouri.
Fighting for fathers’ rights is what motivated Mr. Cordell to become a divorce lawyer for men. In 1990, while practicing general law, he realized 85 to 90 percent of his clients were coming to the Cordell & Cordell firm for domestic relations help.
“I was galvanized by guys who were my clients and trying to get primary custody of their children. Even though they were the better parent, they still couldn’t get across the finish line in the courts,” Mr. Cordell said. “The more frustrated I became, the more incentivized I was to help them.”
As the Co-Founder and Principal Partner of Cordell & Cordell, Mr. Cordell took this passion and created the largest family law firm focused on representing men in divorce in the world. The firm has represented tens of thousands of clients and is powered by nearly 300 attorneys and more than 100 legal staff in more than 100 offices throughout the United States and United Kingdom.
In 2016, Mr. Cordell founded Cordell Planning Partners, an elder care law firm that provides individuals the resources and information needed to make responsible decisions concerning their estate, assets, health, and well-being as they age.
Mr. Cordell is an active member of the American Academy of Attorney-CPAs and was installed as the organizations 51st president in 2014. In 2017, he was elected the AAA-CPA Missouri Chapter President.
Philanthropically, Mr. Cordell and has wife, Yvonne, have continually given back to the legal community. They generously made a gift commitment of $1 million in 2014 to establish and endow the Cordell & Cordell Visiting Professorship at their law school alma mater, Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Mo. In 2018, the Cordells pledged $5 million to Washington University to establish a new institute, the Joseph and Yvonne Cordell Institute for Policy in Medicine & Law, to study issues of ethics, medicine, and law. Additionally, the couple will provide annual support to the establishment.
Mr. Cordell also has prioritized continuous learning and education throughout his career and is committed to providing these opportunities to other attorneys through ongoing education both internally and externally.
He is the driving force behind Cordell & Cordell’s annual daylong CLE Domestic Litigation Forum, which each year gives the local legal community the opportunity to earn a year’s worth of Missouri CLE credits in one day for free.
He also developed Cordell College to provide an additional layer of practice development for Cordell & Cordell attorneys. The internal curriculum program ensures Cordell & Cordell attorneys are not only highly skilled in domestic litigation but also in areas such as organization, time management, and providing communication to their clients that is transparent and easy to understand.
Click here to read more about the ICON Awards or to purchase tickets to the Awards Banquet.
I know Mr. Joe for his knowledge and well deserved for him to be awarded as lawyers icon on this type of event. I am sure there are many lawyers who wanted to be like him or maybe more. Looking forward to his new case(s) solved.