Joel N. Thurston

Education, Training, Experience

Joel has an undergraduate degree in biblical theology, a Master of Divinity degree and a juris doctorate degree.  Joel worked for the government for 10 years before going into private practice as an attorney.  Joel taught religious studies courses at Glendale Community College for approximately twelve years, and is a founding elder of Journey Church in Peoria, Arizona, where he is the resident theologian and his family has attended since 2004.

Joel’s legal practice has generally been litigation in the areas of civil and family, ranging from personal injury and contract or business disputes, to child custody and high conflict divorces and probate matters.  Joel handles most of the firm’s complex cases, including serious injury and wrongful death, and has settled cases over $10,000,000.  He particularly enjoys guiding people through the tumult of life.  He is a counselor at heart and compassionately counsels people through life’s legal challenges.  While a fearless and experienced litigator, Joel appreciates the immeasurable value of mediation.  The outcomes for clients and opposing parties is almost always better when they decide their fate rather than to throw as much information as possible at a judge or jury and hope for a just outcome.  So, if you are scheduling a consultation, please consider first attempting a mediation consultation with Joel or senior partner, Steve Keist, especially in the area of divorce and child custody.  The more parents fight in divorce, the more children are damaged.  Joel would love the opportunity to save you thousands of dollars, months of litigation, and the heartache of a drawn out legal battle by mediating your matter.     

Joel became a managing partner at Keist Thurston Law Firm in 2017.  He is working tirelessly to build on what Mr. Keist began 30 years ago to ensure the firm’s 5 “C” mission—Christian, client-centered, competent, creative and competitive—continues for the next generation.  Joel opened the firms second office in the northwest valley in Peoria, Arizona in January 2017 and is striving to improve the systems and operations of the firm to increase service to current clients and enable the firm to serve more clients.

As an elite ultramarathon runner, Joel has competed in many 50k, 50 mile, 100 mile, and even 250 mile races, usually placing in the top 10% of finishers.  One of Joel’s greatest strength is persistence.  As the 30th President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge once said: “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.  Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with great talent.  Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.  Persistence and determination are omnipotent.”  Joel is prepared to go the extra mile to assist his clients.  He knows what that looks like in a way that few others do.  He has ran 150 miles and felt the pain, hunger, and total exhaustion that accompanies such an endeavor, and then continued on for another 100+ miles until he reached the finish line.  He knows that when we think we are done, we aren’t.  We can go further, higher, faster, and harder as humans than we often think.  Whatever Joel lacks in talent, education, and natural giftedness, Joel more than compensates for by his determination and grit.  More important than anything else, though, Joel is a man of prayer and faith.  He wants more than anything else to be known as a godly man, a man who honors and loves God above all else.  While profoundly imperfect, because of his relationship with his Heavenly Father, Joel lives with incredible love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.  He attributes any strength he has to the Lord.  “The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.”  Psalm 34:10.  He looks forward to sharing these qualities with you as your attorney.