Joe Matthews is an independent international arbitrator and mediator. He has been an arbitrator for more than 35 years and serves as arbitrator in cases administered by the LCIA, ICC, ICDR, ICSID, SIAC, and HKIAC as well as ad hoc proceedings. He served for 12 years on the Board of Directors of the American Arbitration Association and its affiliate the International Centre for Dispute Resolution and for 3 years on their Executive Committee. He has served as arbitrator in over 500 cases, including service as chair or sole arbitrator in more than 100.
For the past 15 years, Joe has served a Mediator certified by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR), the International Mediation Institution (IMI) and a Florida Certified Circuit Civil Mediator. He has served as mediator in more than 100 complex commercial, construction, insurance, hospitality, health care, employment, maritime, and investment disputes domestically and internationally.
He was a trial and appellate advocate in the United States for more than 40 years. He is a Fellow and Past-President (2015) of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, a member of the American Law Institute and an Honorary Bencher of the Inn of Court of Northern Ireland.
Joe graduated magna cum laude from the University of Miami, School of Law, in 1977, where he was Editor of the Law Review and winner of the Wesley Sturges Award. He is the author of dozens of articles, including most recently “Revision of the Arbitration Act 1996; The Case for Arbitral Independence” THE HIBERNIAN LAW JOURNAL Vol. 22 at 43 (2023) (with James Stitt, BL, Northern Ireland). In 2024, he authored a novel under the pen name J. Michaels, entitled “The Cybercurrency Consortium.”
He has lectured and taught extensively, including courses on international arbitration at the National University of Mongolia and at the University of Dundee, Scotland. He has lectured at the Central Party School, Beijing, China, Dubai, Salzburg, Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, Toronto, and throughout the United States. Most recently, he has participated on panel discussions at the Bar of Ireland and the Law Society of Ireland:
• “Compulsory Mediation: An International Perspective,” Panel Discussion, Bar of Ireland (October 20, 2025)
• “The Direction of Travel in Arbitration, Mediation and Litigation and the Economics of Dispute Resolution,” Panel Discussion, Law Society of Ireland (October 20, 2025)