Throughout his nearly 50-year career, Joe Bell has been a constant innovator, applying his law and policy interests to a wide range of issues. His current practice, mostly pro bono, is principally devoted to natural resource policy and concession negotiations in developing countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

He has represented governments in mining and agricultural concession negotiations and has advised regarding tax and royalty policies, stabilization agreements, and other economic issues related to large concessions. He has also advised with respect to the establishment of natural resource management funds and general issues of transparency and governance.

He was an advisor in 1989-90 to the Polish Ministry of Finance. The Polish government subsequently decorated him for his support and work "at the initial and most difficult stage of [Poland's] transformation." Later he established the Warsaw office of Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells). In the same period, he was active in Ukraine and was a co-founder of the Project for Economic reform. During the 1980s he was a leading advocate for the introduction of competition into the electric and natural gas industries, responsible for some of the earliest decisions opening the market. Prior to private practice, he worked for the U.S. Justice and Treasury Departments, the Federal Energy Administration, and the Cabinet Task Force on Oil Import Control. He also taught at the Duke Law and Public Policy Schools.

He is Chair of the International Senior Lawyers Project, co-chair of the Advisory Board of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, a founding director of the Polish American Freedom Foundation, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2010 he received the American Lawyer Life Time Achievement Award, and in 2015 the president of Poland awarded him the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit.