Criminal Defense Attorney: Jim Diamond has practiced law for more than 20 years and currently has a Connecticut practice emphasizing criminal defense. He has achieved success as a criminal attorney and has been voted a Connecticut Super Lawyer by his peers, appearing in Connecticut magazine every year from 2007 to 2010. Certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy as a criminal trial specialist, Jim has tried nearly 30 criminal jury trials to verdict. He was named “Man of the Year” by Mothers Against Drunk Driving in 1992 and was awarded the “Award for Excellence” by the American Bar Association in 1986.
Public Policy, Government, and Politics: Jim started his career in 1981 as a government ethics advocate, serving as executive director of a state chapter of the citizens’ lobbying group Common Cause. There, he championed campaign finance reform and openness in government. He went on to spend nearly a decade in the law enforcement community, first as a public policy adviser to New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams and then for six years as a Connecticut State prosecuting attorney.
Jim has been active in state politics since moving to Connecticut in 1988 and is currently Chairman of the Stamford, Connecticut Democratic Party. He was a member of the City of Stamford Board of Representatives from January 2005 to July 2009, representing the Eleventh District. He was the deputy majority leader and the chairman of the board’s Legislative and Rules Committee, which writes municipal ordinances.
Jim is currently a member of the Connecticut Democratic State Central Committee, having represented the 27th District of Stamford/Darien there since 2004. Prior to moving to Stamford in 2001, he was a member of the Ridgefield Democratic Town Committee for nearly ten years, serving as chairman and vice chairman. He has also managed campaigns for state and local office and has spoken at state political conventions.
Education: Jim was an adjunct professor at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury for 15 years, teaching First Amendment law, among other subjects. He studied government at what is now the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the State University of NY at Albany, receiving a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, in political science in 1981. He earned his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School in 1988.
