Joel Hancock is a native of Carteret County, NC. He was born and raised on Harkers Island by Susan and Joel Hancock, Sr. He has four older sisters, Emily, Joella, Alyson, and Leah; and a little brother, Mike. 

On the first day of school at East Carteret High School in Beaufort, NC, Joel sat beside Lauren Sechler in Ms. Gillikin’s Art I class. After 10 years of dating, Joel and Lauren were married in 2008. They had both just graduated from East Carolina University, where Lauren was a cheerleader for the Pirates and where Joel finished first in his class with a degree in Economics.

Joel and Lauren’s first baby boy, Calvin (or “Cal-boy,” as they call him) was born in 2011 during Joel’s final year of law school at The Penn State Dickinson School of Law. As an infant, Cal-boy went to class with Joel and stole kisses from Joel’s classmates.

After graduating law school and passing the Pennsylvania Bar, Joel, Lauren and Calvin moved back to Harkers Island where Joel hung drywall and studied for the North Carolina Bar. In May of 2013, Joel was sworn in as an Attorney and Counselor at Law in Carteret County District Court by the Honorable Peter Mack. A special guest in attendance that day was Oliver (“Ollie”), Joel and Lauren’s second baby boy, who was just one week old.

In September of 2015 as Joel was in court defending clients, he received a text from Lauren: She was in labor. A few hours later, the couple’s third baby boy, Levi, was born at Carteret Health Care in Morehead City, NC.

In May of 2018, after five years of representing thousands of clients charged with everything from simple seat belt tickets to serious felonies, Joel opened Hancock Law Firm in Beaufort, NC, so he could devote 100% of his time at work to providing elite representation to his clients, and devote 100% of his time away from work to his family and friends.

When Joel isn’t in the courtroom or meeting clients face-to-face, he prefers to be watching UFC fights with Lauren, fishing with his boys, hunting with his friends, training jiu-jitsu, or grilling at his home for whomever wants to come by for dinner.