Joshua W. Martin, III was born in Columbia, South Carolina. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Case Institute of Technology and received his Juris Doctorate from Rutgers Law School. His career has been remarkable—he was a physicist for a Fortune 500 company, a Superior Court judge, CEO of a telecommunications giant, and the first black partner at the oldest law firm in Delaware and one of the ten oldest firms in the United States. After graduating from Case Institute of Technology, Joshua began his career as a physicist at DuPont. Being a successful physicist at a premier chemical company was not enough—he went on to obtain a law degree from Rutgers-Camden Law School and took that knowledge and his scientific know-how to become a patent attorney at Hercules, a chemical and munitions company. From Hercules he ended up serving as a Delaware Superior Court judge, CEO of Verizon Delaware, and finally rounded out his career by becoming a partner at the law firm of Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP in March, 2005. He retired from the Partnership in December, 2013 and is now Senior Counsel with the firm.
His Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) experience includes multi-million dollar settlements in high profile private mediation cases, in addition to substantial experience as an arbitrator in private arbitration matters and in Delaware Superior Court Rule 16 matters. He taught ADR at Widener Law School from 1986- 1995 and judicial mediation at the National Judicial College from 1988-1990. He has participated as an arbitrator in complex commercial matters under AAA rules. He is a member of the AAA Roster of Neutrals and the CPR Panel of Distinguished Neutrals. Mr. Martin was on the Special Master Panel of the U.S. District Court in Delaware until 2015 and has served as a Special Master for the District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He was elected a Fellow of the prestigious College of Commercial Arbitrators in 2016 and elected in 2018 to the Tech List of the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center. He has served as an arbiter in a number of related matters including as a hearing officer in healthcare cases and special master in various types of civil matters.
Joshua Martin’s former community and professional activities include: President – Delaware State Bar Association; Chairman – Wilmington Renaissance Corporation; Chairman – United Way of Delaware; Trustee – Delaware Community Foundation; Trustee – Wilmington Friends School; Member – New Castle County Vo Tech School Board; and Chairman – YMCA Black Achievers Program. In November, 1999, The News Journal in Wilmington nominated him as Delawarean of the Century in Business. He received the Arthur E. Armitage Sr., Distinguished Alumni Award from Rutgers School of Law in 1998 for service to the community and contributions to the legal profession. He has been included in The Best Lawyers in America publication for 2007-2023 and was selected in 2013 and 2017 as Lawyer of the Year for Arbitration in Wilmington, Delaware and as Lawyer of the Year for Mediation in 2019 and 2023, by The Best Lawyers in America. He was awarded the First State Distinguished Service Award in 2013 by the Delaware State Bar Association and the Josiah Marvel Cup, with his wife Cynthia, by the Delaware Chamber of Commerce in 2019.