About Attorney Diaz

Dario D. Diaz was born in Tampa, Florida, on June 26, 1967. His father came from Cuba as a political exile, first seeking asylum in Venezuela. His mother was the child of Spanish immigrants and a lifelong resident of Tampa.

Diaz graduated from Tampa’s Jefferson High School and enrolled at the University of Florida. While at UF he became active in the Naval ROTC program, which led to his enlistment in the United States Marine Corps in 1987. At Marine Corps Boot Camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, he graduated first in his platoon, distinguishing himself as Honor Man, and was meritoriously promoted to Corporal in only 11 months. He received various awards and commendations during his service. After completing his service he returned to Tampa, but was reactivated to serve in Operation Desert Storm. Diaz received a Certificate of Commendation from the Commandant of the Marine Corps for his service and performance during Operation Desert Storm.

After Desert Storm, Diaz worked as a computer field engineer for Medata, Inc. while pursuing his education, earning a B.A. in Economics and Finance and a B.A. in Government and Politics from the University of Texas at Dallas, both summa cum laude. His work as a field engineer gave him technical skills and computer expertise in both software and hardware.

Diaz then enrolled at Baylor University School of Law, where he was a member of the Harvey M. Richie Moot Court Society and on the Dean’s List. He also spent a semester at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, Mexico, studying the civil and criminal codes, and wrote a statistical computer program the law school used for pair-matching in mock trial competitions.

After law school in 1996, Diaz returned to Tampa and entered private practice as a partner in the firm of Fernandez & Diaz, P.A. He is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of Florida and the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

In 1997 Diaz joined the defense of three alleged Cuban skyjackers, Adel Regalado, Jose Bello Puente and Leonardo Reyes, on the night before testimony began in United States District Court. At the conclusion of the trial all three were acquitted of air piracy. The Immigration Service immediately began detention and removal proceedings. In a highly publicized 1998 decision, the Immigration Court ruled in favor of the three men, granting them political asylum and withholding of removal. The government appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals, and after a lengthy appellate process the Board affirmed the decision in October 2002.

Diaz also represented Jose Dionisio Suarez Esquivel, implicated by the United States in the 1976 assassination of former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. During the case Suarez became entangled in the Kingdom of Spain’s extradition proceedings against General Augusto Pinochet and the related investigation by the Republic of Chile. On August 15, 2001, Suarez was freed after nearly a decade in detention. Diaz walked him out of jail, and the photograph made headline news around the world.

Diaz later directed the successful defense in State of Florida v. Noe Ramirez. Ramirez had at one time been identified as the person who threw a boulder off an I-75 overpass in Bradenton, Florida, tragically killing a well-known and respected University of Alabama professor.

Diaz was invited to speak at DEF CON, the largest computer security, cryptography and hacking conference in the United States. His lecture addressed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and its legal implications. When Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov, also a conference speaker, was arrested by federal authorities on charges under the DMCA, the national media identified Diaz as a leading expert in the area.

In 2014 The Florida Bar named Diaz to its Technology Committee, which coordinates technology issues across the legal community. He has taught Continuing Legal Education courses for groups including the Tampa Bay Trial Lawyers Association, the Pinellas County Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Hillsborough County Bar Association and the National Business Institute.

In 2013 Diaz wrote a computer program for automating the eFiling of legal pleadings. He created a method for automating eFiling directly from Word, WordPerfect, Adobe PDF or any case management system. Adoption of Diaz’s software grew quickly, and his company, Legal Automation Systems, Inc., through its main service, eFileMadeEasy, became the de facto standard for automated eFiling. eFileMadeEasy worked closely with the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal on high-volume batch filing and was the very first eFiler to submit in batch in Florida.

eFileMadeEasy was routinely filing more than 10,000 pleadings every day in 13 states. Between 2014 and 2026, Legal Automation Systems, Inc. filed more than 10 million legal pleadings and was the largest automated eFiling company in the United States.

In April 2026, Legal Automation Systems, Inc. was acquired by First Legal (details in First Legal’s announcement). Diaz remains with First Legal as Vice President of Strategic Markets, tasked with innovation and developing new products for the legal industry.

His trial practice covers civil, criminal and foreclosure cases, and he has tried criminal, personal injury and other civil matters. Diaz is married to his high school sweetheart, Lisa. They have three children.