| Diane Haar is an attorney in the Disability Department of Shook & Stone.
From growing up in a special needs family, Diane has taken a deep interest in the needs of the disabled. As a youth, she was often struck by the hardships disabled individuals face, and by the time she was a young adult, Diane had plans to become a lawyer to help those suffering from compromised health and injury. Diane's passion for helping others was a driving force throughout her education. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a 4.0 grade point average from the University of California at Berkeley. She went on to graduate simultaneously from the Yale Law and Medical Schools. While at Yale, Diane fostered her interest in human health and law, serving on the board of a non-profit organization focused on health issues. She also interned at several large plaintiff law firms across the United States, as well as the United States Department of Justice. In the course of this work, Diane became heavily involved in working with individuals who were injured by exposure to environmental contamination, and she was recognized for this work with fellowships for her activities in assessing and managing environmental risks to health, her commitment to public service law, and her efforts in international human rights. Her interests eventually took her to the country of Eritrea in Africa where she was asked to analyze the health impacts on Eritrea's citizens of a military base, abandoned at the end of the Cold War by the former U.S.S.R., as well as to recommend legal remedies to initiate cleanup to President Isiais Afwerki's office. After law school, interested in the health issues in our nation's 49th, and most remote state, Diane clerked for Chief Justice Alexander Bryner on the Alaska Supreme Court.
However, Diane saw a greater need for her services in Eritrea, and after her clerkship, she returned to become the Deputy to the Legal Advisor for the Country of Eritrea. In the course of her work, Diane lived and worked in Eritrea traveling to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague to argue war crimes claims on behalf of the Eritrean people. Diane's passion for the disabled was evident in her work, through which she frequently made health based claims, including those for environmental cleanup to protect the Eritrean people from dangerous toxins left behind on their soil during the course of the war.
During her time in Eritrea, Diane met the man who would one day become her husband, a Senior Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force. He was transferred to Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Diane later joined him.
With an unwavering desire to work directly with disabled individuals, Diane chose to work at Shook & Stone due to its strong disability practice and solid reputation of client interaction and satisfaction. Although Shook & Stone is already a leader in the disability arena, Diane was also drawn to the firm's desire to expand the practice into a full service disability firm, which will cover all aspects of the legal needs of the disabled. With so few resources for the disabled in Nevada and parts of California, Diane strongly supports Shook & Stone's vision, and is working diligently to ensure this vision is made a reality.
Currently, Diane spends most of her time doing what she loves most, which is working directly with Shook & Stone's disabled clients and helping them to get the benefits they need. She is licensed to practice law in California and Nevada, and she regularly represents disabled individuals in both states.
After living in so many remote locations and still a newlywed, Diane spends her spare time with her family and learning the life of a military spouse.
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