James D. Diamond is a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School and Senior Counselor for Indigenous Programs at the Yale Center for Environmental Justice. He is also Professor of Practice at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.
From 2022 to 2024 Diamond was the Director of the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law’s Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program (IPLP). From 2016 to 2021 Diamond was the founding Director of IPLP’s Tribal Justice Clinic. He supervised clinical legal projects on behalf of American Indian tribes, represented a tribal nation in tribal court while also teaching Tribal Courts, Law and Governments. He was appointed Special Prosecutor in the Pascua Yaqui Tribal Court in Arizona.
Diamond served as Dean of Academic Affairs at The National Tribal Trial College, whose faculty he first joined in 2016.
His academic research focuses on the aftermath of heinous crime and restorative justice. His doctoral dissertation formed the basis of his book, After the Bloodbath: Is Healing Possible in the Wake of Rampage Shootings. He is the coauthor of Introduction to Criminal Law, a Contemporary Approach, along with several articles on the practice of criminal law in tribal courts.
Prior to entering academia, Diamond practiced law for 25 years in Connecticut with an emphasis on criminal law, serving six years as an Assistant State’s Attorney and then a Criminal Defense Attorney.
Diamond is admitted to practice law in three tribal courts and the states of Connecticut, Arizona, and New York.
