Profile

Joe Khan is Co-Chair of the firm’s Appellate Section as well as a partner in the firm’s Litigation, Environmental Law and Public Sector Law Sections. For nearly 20 years, he served the public as a county prosecutor, federal prosecutor, and county solicitor. He now provides trusted counsel to public, private and nonprofit sector clients in a wide variety of representations, including appellate, criminal, environmental, elections, and public governance matters across Pennsylvania.

Mr. Khan began his career prosecuting rape, child abuse, and domestic violence as an Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia and received national recognition for his commitment to combatting sexual assault. He then served for a decade as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where he prosecuted violent crime across southeastern Pennsylvania and led the historic City Hall corruption probes in Allentown and Reading. Most recently, he served as the Solicitor for Bucks County, where he was credited with “redefining the role of County Solicitor.” Mr. Khan’s leadership of the County’s first fulltime Law Department substantially improved outcomes and services while saving the County millions of dollars and modeling best practices on diversity. In addition to overseeing all litigation for the County, Mr. Khan built partnerships with Solicitors, District Attorneys, and others to protect voting rights, consumers, and the environment through cutting edge litigation, including the first county lawsuit against TikTok and other social media companies for fueling a youth mental health crisis. He and his team also successfully drafted innovative laws – including Pennsylvania’s only used car Lemon Law, Bucks County’s first anti-fraud and whistleblower legislation, and the first county ordinance to combat human trafficking – all of which were enacted on a bipartisan basis. Since joining Curtin & Heefner, Mr. Khan has leveraged his trial experience, mediation training and trusted relationships to resolve several complex problems with “win-win” outcomes.

Honors/Awards

Mr. Khan has received numerous awards for his exemplary service, including his tenure as Bucks County Solicitor. In 2022, the Pennsylvania Bar Association honored him as the Government Lawyer of the Year. The previous year, he received the Outstanding Solicitor Award from the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. His nomination was supported by his peers in other counties, including a future Allegheny County judge, who wrote, “Joe was the uniting force in the effort to prepare for, execute, and ultimately defend the most difficult election Pennsylvania has ever conducted…without Joe’s diligence our state would have been in a far more dire circumstance.”

Charitable, Community and Civic Involvement

Mr. Khan resides in Doylestown with his two sons. He is a parent volunteer in the Central Bucks School District and has coached through Penn Athletics, Doylestown Athletic Association, and Lenape Valley Baseball Association. He has led several nonprofit boards and previously served on the Pennsylvania Governor’s Advisory Commission for Asian Pacific American Affairs. He serves on the adjunct faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and frequently speaks and presents on legal issues.