Joseph D. Estes

Joe Estes is a Partner at Pierce Coleman PLLC, with over 20 years of litigation and municipal legal experience. Joe primarily represents municipalities and other public entities in matters that include administrative law, election law, code enforcement and compliance, public records, procurement law, open meeting law, real estate, land use and zoning, development, conflict of interest, 1983 actions and civil litigation. He serves as the primary city/town attorney to various Arizona municipalities. His experience includes having served as the Assistant City Attorney for the City of Yuma, the City Attorney for the City of Page, an Assistant Attorney General for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and a judge Pro-Tem for the Pinal County Justice Courts and Maricopa County Superior Court.

Joe was licensed to practice law in Nevada in 2003 and shortly thereafter was admitted in Arizona in 2005. Joe is admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Districts of Arizona, Nevada and Colorado and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Joe has handled hundreds of civil and criminal cases from trial to appeal in everything from city and justice courts to state and federal courts, including the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Districts of Arizona and Nevada and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Joe also served on the City of Maricopa’s first Planning and Zoning Commission and then was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Maricopa City Council, for which he won re-election the following year, serving from 2005 to 2010. Joe’s service on the City Council has provided him with unique insights and experience that allows him to bring practical and innovative solutions to his municipal clients that most other municipal attorneys do not have.

Joe comes from a hardworking blue-collar family and lived in diverse places growing up that include Alaska, the Philippines, Brazil and California. Hard work has been a part of Joe’s life from a young age, from his first job picking cucumbers in the fields of central California to being the first in his family to go to college. Joe earned a B.S., cum laude, from Wesley College in 1997, and did so while working full-time in the U.S. Air Force, where he was trained as an Arabic linguist and then as an Air Transportation Specialist and held a top-secret SCI security clearance. Joe then put himself through law school and earned his J.D. from the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law in 2003, again while working full-time, this time as a commercial hazardous materials tanker driver. Joe still maintains his commercial driver’s license, which supports his main hobby of buying and fixing military equipment and vehicles from government auctions.

Joe is dedicated to providing his clients with the best services possible.