In this subseries are papers Diaz produced, gathered, and received as part of his daily work routine. This subseries is divided into two groups: departmental and committee papers, and personnel files. The latter group, which contains items like employee applications, résumés, and appointments/terminations/transfers reports, is closed to researchers. Departmental and committee papers includes memos on court procedures, financial data, schedules, reports, and correspondence relating to Diaz’s various committee assignments. There is a significant amount of meeting materials (agendas, references, and minutes) from Diaz’s work with the Criminal Procedural Rules Committee, as well as a group of correspondence, memos, and schedules related to his successful Judge “Pro-Tem” Program, which gave attorneys the chance to experience the legal system from the judge’s perspective.

This subseries contains official papers, such as opinions, orders, decisions, and findings and conclusions produced during trials of the Court of Common Pleas or higher Pennsylvania courts. There are over forty folders of Diaz’s opinions and orders from 1982 to 1993. Additionally, there are several folders of documents related to various city-wide asbestos cases presented to the court in the 1980s. This subseries also contains a few restricted folders.

The subseries, which is broken down into two groups, judicial and general, is comprised of Diaz’s correspondence with his co-workers and outside people and organizations. The first group is arranged by correspondent, and each folder contains incoming and outgoing letters. The vast majority of these letters originated during Diaz’s term as administrative judge, Trial Division. The second group contains letters from various organizations as well as Diaz’s personal and miscellaneous correspondence, invitations, and notes. The personal correspondence falls into two categories: loose letters, notes, and cards that were filed according to occasion (birthday, condolence, thank you, miscellaneous, etc.) and correspondence that had been separated into incoming or outgoing groups. Notably, in this group there is a folder of letters and pamphlets from “Enjoying Marriage,” a couple’s retreat, which provides a rare glimpse into Diaz’s personal life. There is one folder of restricted material in this subseries.

This subseries richly documents Diaz’s extracurricular activities that directly or indirectly relate to his work with the Court of Common Pleas. For instance, there are a few folders of materials pertaining to Diaz’s interest in expanding Hispanic-controlled media, and a group of news clippings and articles underscoring Diaz’s accomplishments and those of his colleagues. This subseries also contains a guide Diaz created to his court rulings, and sizable groups of correspondence and meeting materials from the Pennsylvania Conference of Trial Judges and the Philadelphia Bar Association. In addition, there are letters, forms, and financial data from Diaz’s 1981 run for Court of Common Pleas judge, as well as election petitions from his bid for Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

There are also materials in this subseries that highlight Diaz’s legal work abroad. In 1987, Diaz was chosen to participate in an exchange program sponsored by the U.S.-Japan Foundation. He was the first U.S. magistrate chosen for such a program. Along with other program participants, he spent “two months reviewing the Japanese legal system from both the country’s Supreme Court and from a [private] law firm.” Diaz met with local business and governmental leaders, held and attended legal and judicial lectures, witnessed Japanese legal customs and traditions, and learned about Japan’s demanding legal education system. Diaz took extensive notes and recorded his observations on micro-cassette tapes. The cassette tapes are in Series 8 while the written transcripts are in this subseries. Other materials, some written or printed in Japanese, that detail Diaz’s trip to Japan include Japanese legal references, reports from workshops and conferences, correspondence, and extensive news clippings. There are two folders of restricted materials in this subseries.

In 1990, Diaz was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and went to Peru as a law teacher. During his nine-week stay, Diaz coordinated and led legal workshops and seminars for law students, judges, and lawyers, met with local leaders to offer advice on reforming Peru’s judicial and penal systems, and in the process learned first hand about the Peruvian legal system. The items (some in Spanish) in this subseries that document this trip include Diaz’s personal notes and writings, teaching materials, correspondence, and Fulbright applications and program guides.

This small subseries contains organizational correspondence, invitations, and speech notes that are indirectly related to Diaz’s judicial work. For instance, the folder entitled “Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship banquet” contains a faith-based inspirational speech Diaz presented to this organization about community relationships and development. There are also folders of speeches Diaz addressed to the Community College of Philadelphia, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, and the World Conference on Soviet Jewry. In this subseries, one will also find the remarks Diaz gave at his swearing-in ceremony to the Court of Common Pleas. Interestingly, researchers will find multiple copies of similar speeches in these folders, for it seems Diaz often re-used parts of his speeches to form different presentations.

This subseries is comprised of materials relating to Diaz’s work with Temple University’s School of Law. There is a folder of correspondence from 1977 from Temple’s Law, Education, and Participation Project (LEAP). This interdisciplinary project was designed to help teach law to non-lawyers. Diaz, then executive director of the Spanish Merchant’s Association, was a LEAP regional advisory board member. From around 1982 to about 1992, Diaz taught Introduction to Trial Advocacy at Temple School of Law. In these folders are lecture notes, handouts, syllabi, and memos. Folders of student/teacher evaluations, grade lists, and student transcripts are closed to researchers. There is also a folder of miscellaneous memos and correspondence and a folder of notes, references, and forms from Temple’s 1984 Herman Stern Moot Court Competition, which Diaz helped judge.

Diaz served on the Temple University Hospital’s Board of Governors from about the early 1980s to the early 1990s. This subseries is comprised mostly of board meeting minutes, agendas, references, and memos.

In 1997, Diaz offered to represent Temple University to restructure a loan with Summit Bank. However, since Diaz had a sustained relationship with Temple a conflict of interest arose, and Diaz could not be involved with the case. The materials in this small subseries pertain to this legal venture and include memos, correspondence, budgets, conflict search papers, and various legal documents. Separated into four folders are materials sent to Diaz prior to the conflict of interest search. There is also a “Statement of Qualifications” sent from Blank Rome LLP to Temple University and the University Health System indicating that Blank Rome had maintained a working relationship with the university.

This subseries contains correspondence, financial reports, press releases, and other miscellaneous papers. Among the materials is a report prepared by Temple’s Institute for Survey Research concerning an immigrant employee pilot program, several booklets and pamphlets highlighting Temple’s various programs, and a few issues of Temple’s community newspaper, Temple Times.

This portion of the collection contains documents produced while Diaz was a member of Temple University's Board of Trustees. Materials included in this subseries include board agendas, reference, and minutes; memos and correspondence; reports and directories; and pamphlets and brochures.

In this series, one will find materials from Diaz’s legal work as city solicitor. One of his duties in this position was to provide legal advice in official matters. Thus, a large amount of the materials in this subseries consists of advice he wrote for various individuals, companies, and city departments on issues ranging from tax problems to building and land development to employee rights and responsibilities. The folder of his advice of counsel is currently closed to researchers.

Also in this subseries are a number of case briefs relating to Pennsylvania Senate Bill 1100. This case (the “Convention Center Case”) questioned the constitutionality of this bill, which Philadelphia officials believed would adversely affect the City of Philadelphia if enacted. The bill involved changing the governing body of the Pennsylvania Convention Center and transferring authority over taxis to the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA), as well as granting the PPA other powers. Mayor Street and the City of Philadelphia argued that the bill would harm the city’s hospitality industry as well as their ability to bargain with unions. They claimed that this bill was stealthily introduced to the Senate and not given enough time for consideration.