Hon. Joseph C. Adams is a judge for the York County Court of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania. He was elected to the bench in 2005.
During his judicial tenure, Adams was named president judge of the 19th Judicial District, which includes the York County Court of Common Pleas. His five-year term as president judge ended in 2020. He has also presided as a Juvenile Court judge.
Adams received a B.S. in business administration from Elizabethtown College in 1990. He went on to complete a J.D. at the University of Dayton School of Law in 1993.
Prior to joining the bench, Adams was a shareholder and partner in the CGA Law Firm, a position he had held since 1998. At the firm, he practiced in the Civil and Domestic Litigation Sections. Before that, he worked as a senior deputy prosecutor in the Child Abuse Unit of the York County District Attorney’s Office (1993 to 1998).
Over the course of his legal career, Adams also spent time as a solicitor for the York County Clerk’s Office and a court-appointed mediator and Juvenile Delinquency master.
He is a past president of the Herbert B. Cohen Inn of Court and the York County Bar Association.
Adams, a married father of three, is an instrument-rated private pilot. In his free time, he enjoys running, biking and traveling.