Joel Williams

Adjunct Professor of Law

Email: Joel.V.Williams.283@nd.edu

Joel Williams joined the Notre Dame Law School as an assistant adjunct faculty member in 2000. In 2000 and 2001, Williams taught a Prosecutor’s Externship class. Since 2005, has taught the Mock Trial class during the fall semester and co-coached the National Trial Competition (NTC) and American Association of Justice (AAJ) trial teams during the spring semester. Since 2015, Williams has taught an advanced evidence class, Courtroom Evidence, during the fall semester.

Williams graduated from the University of Michigan in 1992 with a B.A. in Political Science. In 1993, he began law school at the University of Toledo Law School. In his second year of law school, Williams was a member of the University of Toledo Law Review and had his Comment ‘Sibling Rights to Visitation: A Relationship Too Valuable to Be Denied’ published. During his third year of law school, Williams was the Symposium Editor of the Law Review. In 1996, he graduated tenth in his class and was granted membership in The Order of the Coif.

After graduating law school, Williams worked as a Deputy County Attorney in Maricopa County, Arizona, prosecuting vehicular crimes. From 1999 to 2003, he worked as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in St. Joseph County, Indiana, prosecuting vehicular crimes and murder cases. Since 2003, Williams has worked as a prosecutor in Elkhart County, Indiana. Currently, he is the Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, supervising twenty-six (26) deputy prosecuting attorneys in the Office’s Trial Division and Child Support Division. In addition, Williams prosecutes homicide related cases. Finally, he oversees the Office’s training program.

In addition to teaching at Notre Dame Law School, Williams has served as an Assistant Adjunct Professor at Ivy Tech State College and Indiana Tech. He has served as a faculty member for the National District Attorney’s Association (NDAA) and the Indiana Prosecuting Attorney’s Council (IPAC) in their Trial Advocacy Programs. Finally, Williams has given lectures at numerous IPAC seminars on various criminal law and trial advocacy topics.

Courses Taught

Mock Trial and Courtroom Evidence