Joe focuses his practice on complex litigation and vaccine injury compensation before the Court of Federal Claims. Prior to joining Maglio Christopher & Toale, P.A., Joe began his career in the mergers and acquisitions practice of a major Washington, D.C. law firm, worked on corporate restructurings and turnarounds, and then spent several years in his own practice representing entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Joe studied neuroscience and psychology at Harvard, graduating magna cum laude in 2002.  His senior thesis was published in Learning & Memory, an influential cognitive neuroscience journal. This research helped to call into question the hypothesis that the degeneration of cholinergic neurons plays an important role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. The so-called “cholinergic hypothesis” had been the basis for most pharmacological therapies marketed to Alzheimer’s physicians and their patients.

Joe then received a master’s degree in biology with an emphasis on cognitive neuroscience from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Along with several Cambridge scientists, he published research on the cognitive basis of visual impairment in brain-damaged patients. These results appeared in Neuropsychologia, a prestigious and widely read journal.

Joe then attended law school at the New York University School of Law where he served as staff editor of the Annual Survey of American Law.

Joe is admitted to practice before the courts of the District of Columbia, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, and the United States Court of Federal Claims. He grew up in Pittsburgh and now lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and daughter.

Scientific Publications

Vuckovich JA, Semel ME, Baxter MG. Extensive Lesions of Cholinergic Basal Forebrain Neurons Do Not Impair Spatial Working Memory. Learn Mem. 2004 Jan-Feb;11(1):87-94.

Marcel A, Mackintosh B, Postma P, Cusack R, Vuckovich J, Nimmo-Smith I, Cox SM. Is susceptibility to perceptual migration and fusion modality-specific or multimodal? Neuropsychologia. 2006;44(5):693-710. Epub 2005 Oct 18.

Recent Vaccine Injury Decisions

• Case Number 16-1472V: Influenza (Flu) Vaccine; Shoulder Injury Related to Vaccine Administration (SIRVA)
• Case Number 17-346V: Influenza (Flu) Vaccine; Shoulder Injury Related to Vaccine Administration (SIRVA)
• Case Number 17-349V: Influenza (Flu) Vaccine; Shoulder Injury Related to Vaccine Administration (SIRVA)
• Case Number 17-780V: Influenza (“Flu”) Vaccine; Guillain-Barre Syndrome (“GBS”)
• Case Number 17-728V: Influenza (Flu) Vaccine; Shoulder Injury Related to Vaccine Administration (SIRVA)