Diana Cortes

Diana was appointed Philadelphia city solicitor in December 2020—the first Latina to serve in the role. As Philadelphia’s chief legal officer, she was a member of the Mayor’s Cabinet and managed one of the largest municipal law practices in the United States, covering litigation, corporate, real estate, tax, regulatory, legislative, and privacy matters. She directed the legal strategy for the mayor, city council, and all city departments and agencies responsible for public safety, utilities, public property, airports, information security, sustainability, and municipal finance. She also led the legal and client strategy to initiate all affirmative litigation to advance the city’s policy and financial interests, including those related to opioid recovery, gun violence, and environmental justice.   

Serving as Philadelphia’s chief legal officer during the pandemic, Diana provided legal and crisis management counsel amid critical public emergencies and was among the core group of city leaders managing short- and long-term COVID-19 response, vaccine rollout, mandatory vaccination work policies, and public safety and health measures. She also served as an assistant district attorney in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, where she tried felony jury trials.

Diana previously served as a litigator in private practice, representing municipalities, school districts, and police officers in civil rights litigation involving excessive force, wrongful arrest, due process violations, and malicious prosecution. She has particular experience before the judiciaries in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She has taught trial advocacy at Temple University Beasley School of Law and the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. Fluent in Spanish, Diana is a member of Philadelphia’s Hispanic Bar Association and the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group.

As Philadelphia City Solicitor/General Counsel

• Led the team in filing a petition for review against the Commonwealth to enforce Philadelphia’s plastic bag ban (City of Philadelphia, et al. v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania et al. – Commonwealth Court)
• Led the legal and client strategy to sue and successfully move for two preliminary injunctions against the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services for failing to move state-committed detained youth from Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Services Center that exceeded its state-licensed certificate of occupancy (City of Philadelphia v. Department of Human Services, et al. – Commonwealth Court)
• After successful and precedential motion practice, negotiated a cost-effective settlement ensuring construction or remediation of 10,000 curb ramps for the proceeding 15 years and responsiveness to citizen requests throughout Philadelphia—saving the city hundreds of millions of dollars and making it more equitable and accessible to all residents and patrons (Liberty Resources Inc., et al. v. City of Philadelphia – Eastern District of Pennsylvania)

At Morgan Lewis

• Represented General Cable Corp. before the European Commission in an investigation of a global bid-rigging cartel in the high-voltage power cable market, persuading the commission to decline charges against General Cable’s subsidiary
• Represented a major pharmaceutical company in class action litigation involving the US government’s 340B drug discount program, including allegations of fraud and breach of government contract, and culminating in a unanimous US Supreme Court decision in favor of the client and other major pharmaceutical companies (Astra USA, Inc. v. Santa Clara County, California – US Supreme Court)
• Represented a bilingual individual facing federal drug charges, persuading a federal judge to reject leader organizer enhancement against pro bono and impose the minimum sentence