Jay Diaz

Attorney

About

Jay Diaz is a Vermont litigator committed to fighting for working people. That commitment is personal: Jay's father was a union ironworker and contractor. He understands that work supports families and communities, and that a workplace injury, lost job, denied benefit, or retaliation for speaking out can put all of that at risk. His advocacy career began with volunteering to support domestic workers’ rights in New York. 

Jay’s work has also included clerking with the U.S. Department of Labor, defending individuals’ unemployment compensation rights, protecting public employees’ free speech rights, and representing workers injured on the job. Beyond advocating for workers’ rights, Jay helped secure landmark constitutional and civil rights victories before the Vermont Supreme Court and in the Vermont Legislature.

Jay's practice focuses on workers’ compensation, personal injury, civil rights, constitutional, and commercial litigation. He has extensive experience in state and federal trial and appellate courts, including litigation seeking monetary, declaratory, injunctive, and class-based relief, as well as legislative and regulatory advocacy. He currently serves as Reporter for the Vermont Judiciary’s Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure and as an adjunct law professor at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine and Vermont Law and Graduate School.

Before joining DKR, Jay served as the Vermont Poverty Law Fellow, litigated civil-rights cases at the ACLU of Vermont, and was a senior attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. He earned his J.D. from Boston College Law School and is admitted in Vermont, the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, and the Second and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals. 

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