Civil Court Judge-to-be Diaz will bring an open mind to new role on bench

Nestor Diaz will be sworn in as Civil Court Judge on Dec. 16. Photo courtesy of Nestor Diaz

By Rachel Vick

Newly elected Queens Civil Court Judge Nestor Diaz is reentering the public sector ready to apply his experiences as the child of immigrants and his more than 30 years in law to his role on the bench.

The COVID-19 pandemic will complicate the start of his judicial career, but Diaz said he looks forward to tackling the challenge head on. He said he will be “a judge for everyone,” after representing clients who he said were pre-judged when they entered a courtroom.
“At the end of the day when someone goes before the court they want to feel like they’re getting a fair shake, that someone is actually going to hear what they have to say,” Diaz said. “In my 31 years I’ve gone before some judges and I could see they had made their decision before I even went there. When you have a judiciary that reflects the people, that can empathize, then I think you achieve something.” 

As a first generation college graduate, Diaz wanted to pursue a career that would help others. He started as an engineering major before shifting to a legal focus after finding that his knack for history could be applied to concepts like legal precedents. 

Diaz grew up helping out his dad at a bodega in Crown Heights — an upbringing that he said solidified his work ethic. He had to work hard because he started off with zero connections, he said.

“You don’t have to know anybody, but if you work hard and have the right attitude you can do anything you want,” said Diaz, the first Dominican man elected to the bench in Queens. “When [kids] see someone like me that didn’t grow up with any connections and got to this point by working hard, they see that whatever they want to try and do, they can. “

He attended St. John’s School of Law in the 1980s, at a time when there were “so few minorities that we had to form our own law association just to have our own voice,” Diaz said. He went on to mentor other young Latino lawyers and served as president of the Latino Lawyers Association of Queens County. 

Before law school, he spent time working in the New York Attorney General’s office and in the intelligence field. Later, he served as special assistant to New York City’s Corporation Counsel for the Commissioner of Social Service and as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, where he handled domestic violence and civil rights cases.

“All my experience makes me someone who can understand the people who come before me,” Diaz said. “I don’t prejudge them and I put the facts with the situation, because I think a judge should be patient, compassionate. How can you judge someone if you don’t understand where they’re coming from?”  

“That’s my aspiration — to be fair and give everyone the opportunity to be heard,” he added. “To finally be recognized for all my hard work  and genuine efforts to help people and neighbors, especially those from the Hispanic community is beyond my wildest imagination.”