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Mr. Michael Diederich, Jr. - Civil Rights Law Firm in Stony Point, NY

MICHAEL "MIKE" DIEDERICH, JR.

Mr. Diederich has been practicing law since 1981, with extensive experience in state and federal courts, at both the trial and appellate level. He has won jury verdicts in employment law and civil rights law cases, and won significant appellate cases. He has waged legal battles against the largest corporations. He is admitted to the NY and MA bars, federal district court, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Diederich's education includes: • B.S., University of Vermont, 1976 (Environmental Science) • J.D., Northwestern School of Law, 1980 • LL.M. Pace Univ. School of Law, 1992 (Environmental Law) • Advanced Course, Army Judge Advocate General's School, 1992 • Command & General Staff College, U.S. Army, 1999

Mr. Diederich has recently retired as a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserves. He served as a member of the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps in Iraq (2004-2005), and in Afghanistan (2012), where he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.

AFFILIATED ATTORNEYS

Ms. Kathleen Jackson - Civil Rights Law Firm in Stony Point, NY

KATHLEEN JACKSON

Ms. Jackson is a former criminal prosecutor who now has a private practice located in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, not far from Albany,NY and Springfield, MA. If your employment law or civil rights problem is "upstate NY" or western Massachusetts, Ms. Jackson is available to meet with you. She is admitted to both the NY and MA bar, and practices in both state and federal court.

MR. DIEDERICH'S PROFESSIONAL WRITINGS

  • Treatise Chapter: Municipal Solid Waste Management, New York Environmental Law Series (Lawyers Cooperative, 1995)
  • Article: "Law: Can Municipalities Manage Their Own Solid Waste", ENVIRONMENT Magazine (May 1995)
  • Article: "Practitioner's Perspective: In Light of Carbon: Who Owns Municipal Solid Waste?" THE NEW YORK ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORT (April 1995)
  • Article: "For the Government Counsel--Keep Democratic Rule over Trash", ABA Section of Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law, Nov./Dec. 1994
  • Article: "Garbage and the Constitution: Democracy Collides with the Commerce Clause", N.Y.S. Bar Association's Environmental Law Section Journal, May 1994
  • Law Review: "Does Garbage Have Standing?--Democracy, Flow Control and Solid Waste Management", 11 PACE ENVT'L L. REV. 157 (Fall 1993)
  • Article: "County Acquires Prescriptive Easement Over Runway Airspace" FOOTNOTES (July 1992) at p. 5
  • Law Review: Law of War and Ecology A Proposal for a Workable Approach to Protecting the Environment Through the Law of War, 136 MILITARY LAW REVIEW 141 (Summer 1992)

LITIGATION NEWS

Mr. Diederich has several pending federal cases of potential regional or national importance. The U.S. EEOC has submitted an amicus brief in support of Mr. Diederich’s client in Franchino v. ArchCare. In a different case involving the Archdiocese of New York, Mr. Diederich is fighting for a client whose contract was not renewed on the basis of what the former female school principal alleges as gender discrimination, where the employer has asserted religious “ministerial immunity”—a cutting edge First Amendment case of potential national importance. Several amici have supported Mr. Diederich’s position in this case, Fratello v. Archdiocese. 

In 2014, Mr. Diederich won a civil liberties appeal of national importance: Sherman v. Town of Chester, __ F.3d __ (2d Circuit, 2014) involving an individual’s land use regulatory takings claim. And in his public interest advocacy on behalf of the citizenry against corporate interests, Mr. Diederich favorably influenced the U.S. Supreme Court in United Haulers v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Management Authority, 550 U.S. 330 (2007).
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