Joseph C. Bell

Joseph C. Bell is Senior Counsel Emeritus at Hogan Lovells and was a co-author of the initial draft of the Natural Resource Charter. Working principally pro bono through the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP), he has advised a number of African and Asian governments and NGOs on natural resource policy and taxation, counselling several on the negotiation of their mining and concession agreements.  

Bell is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a founding director of the Polish American Freedom Foundation and a former chair of ISLP. Prior to private practice, Bell worked for the U.S. Justice and Treasury Departments, the Federal Energy Administration and the Cabinet Task Force on Oil Import Control. Additionally, he has taught at Duke University’s law and public policy schools. He was an advisor to the Polish Ministry of Finance in 1989–90 and later established the Warsaw office of Hogan & Hartson. In 1990 he co-founded the Project for Economic Reform in Ukraine.  

Born in the U.S., Bell received his undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado, his master’s in economics from Harvard University and his juris doctorate from Yale Law School. He received the Outstanding Service Award from the U.S. Department of Justice, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Lawyer and was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the Republic of Poland. He was a leader of the ISLP group that was decorated as a Knight Officer by the President of Liberia for ISLP’s work there.