Joseph N. West was born in Houston, Texas. He received his B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1985 and his J.D. from South Texas College of Law in 1993 and a Masters of Law in Business Transactions and the Taxation of Business Entities in 2015 and an LLM in International Tax from Georgetown University Law Center in June 2021. While in law school Mr. West was a national semi-finalist in the Frederick Douglass Moot Court competition.
Prior to attending law school, Mr. West gained valuable technical and problem-solving experience while working as a Project Engineer and Manager on several large-scale utility construction projects, including the South Texas Nuclear Project in Palacios, Texas, and the Limerick Nuclear Generating Station in Limerick, Pennsylvania.
Mr. West was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in December 1993, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in March 13, 1995, and is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Mr. West is a member of the American Bar Association, the Travis County Bar Association, and the Austin Young Lawyers Association. Since joining Cantilo & Bennett, L.L.P., in 1993, he has practiced primarily in the areas of civil litigation, construction law, insurance insolvency, intellectual property laws including patents.