About Judge Diaz
Judge Diaz immigrated from Lima, Peru to Seattle as an infant. His parents, five siblings and he settled in the welcoming and then-working-class neighborhood of Ballard and, in middle school, moved down to the White Center/Burien area. His family spoke Spanish exclusively at home. He was the first lawyer in his large Latino family, which includes around 60 first cousins and dozens of nephews and nieces.
Judge Diaz earned his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame. He then was a graduate student at Princeton University, studying classical philosophy for two years. He earned his law degree from Cornell Law School, where he served on the Cornell International Law Journal.
Judge Diaz began his career in private practice, first as an associate at the international law firm Fulbright & Jaworski LLP in Houston, Texas, then at the litigation boutique in Seattle, litigating complex commercial and white-collar criminal defense matters.
Heeding his call to public service, Judge Diaz then spent a decade as an Assistant United States Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle (“DOJ”), where he helped found the office’s Civil Rights Program and investigated and/or prosecuted a wide variety of civil rights matters.
Among the honors he received while at DOJ, Judge Diaz received the EOUSA Director’s Award for “extraordinary professional achievements and excellence,” among the highest awards given to the nationwide United States Attorney community; the Thomas C. Wales Performance Award, the highest award given at the Seattle U.S. Attorney’s Office; and the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Division’s Distinguished Service Award, among the highest awards in that Division.
Visual context only; no endorsement applied
In 2016, President Obama nominated Judge Diaz to be a U.S. District Court Judge for the Western District of Washington, which expired and was returned to the President in January 2017 without U.S. Senate action.
As an attorney, Judge Diaz regularly volunteered at the King County Bar Association's Neighborhood Legal Clinic Program's Spanish Language Legal Clinic, which he later helped merge with the El Centro de La Raza clinic. He served on KCBA's Pro Bono Service Committee, was Chair of its Neighborhood Legal Clinic Program’s Advisory Committee, and Chair of its Spanish Clinic Subcommittee.
In January 2018, Governor Jay Inslee appointed Judge Diaz to the King County Superior Court, where he presided over approximately four dozen trials in all types of criminal, civil and domestic matters. He also served a term as the Chief Judge of King County’s Patricia H. Clark Children & Family Justice Center, and served on the Court’s Executive, Budget, Rules and History committees.
In 2022, Governor Inslee then appointed Judge Diaz to his present position on the Washington Court of Appeals, Division I, where he has authored over 200 opinions in all types of matters.
Judge Diaz remains active in the community. He is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Seattle University School of Law, where he is teaching a course on Washington Constitutional Law, has taught a civil rights course, and supervised independent studies students and externs. Until recently, he was on faculty at the DOJ’s National Advocacy Center, the Washington State Judicial Institute, and the Washington State Judicial College. He is currently the chairperson of the Washington State Supreme Court’s Interpreter and Language Access Commission and is a Member of the Washington Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Judge Diaz lives in northeast Seattle, has been married for nearly 25 years, and for many years helped coach/manage their two daughters' school soccer team, quite successfully.