Joel Rathbone

Joel Rathbone originally hails from Long Island, NY, but moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1974, shortly after his tour of duty in the Air Force. Prior to his service, he completed his B.A. at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and after his service he completed his J.D. at Cleveland Marshall College of Law in 1979.

He first practiced law with the firm of Weltman, Weinberg & Associates, where he became a partner at the firm. After leaving the firm in 1986, he went into practice with his mother as the firm of Rathbone & Lamson. In 1988, the firm was merged into Block, Rathbone & Soucie. This firm in 1991 merged into the firm of Javitch, Block & Rathbone, of which Joel became Co-Managing Partner. In 2014, Joel left JBR to form the new subrogation law firm of Rathbone Group.

Through the years, Joel has practiced in many diverse areas of the law. He started out in creditor rights, representing financial institutions and other businesses in recovering their collateral and their debts. He then moved into the bankruptcy area representing creditors, then was appointed to act as a Bankruptcy Trustee in Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 cases in Cleveland.

During his 17 years of service as a Trustee, Joel handled thousands of consumer bankruptcy cases, and hundreds of business cases, including operating a number of different businesses in order to maximize their value for an on-going value sale.

In 2000, Joel became immersed in the Insurance Subrogation Practice, substantially growing the client base and placements by 100 fold, and becoming a charter member of the National Association of Subrogation Professionals (NASP). Joel has applied his management and legal skills sets to numerous subrogation client situations to assist the clients in very tough situations. His legacy continues to drive our subrogation department’s efforts to maximize client recoveries in even the most difficult subrogation claims, all while minimizing time and cost of pursuit.

Joel retired from Rathbone Group on December 31, 2019.