Diana Simpson is an attorney with the Institute for Justice. She joined the Institute’s headquarters office in 2013 after working as a constitutional law fellow in the Arizona office.

Diana litigates to protect private property and other individual rights, with a particular interest in challenging irrational zoning decisions and abusive fines and fees practices. For instance, she represented a homeless shelter after a North Carolina town invoked bogus reasons to prohibit it from opening. The team obtained a federal court victory recognizing that the government violated the Constitution by irrationally denying the shelter its needed permit to open.

She currently represents a Texas auto mechanic who faces an impossible-to-comply-with minimum parking requirement. And she is lead attorney in a class action lawsuit against the City of Chicago challenging its impound system, which imposes excessive fines and harsh fees on tens of thousands of Chicago residents and visitors each year. Beyond these cases, she has represented many other Americans in their fight to pursue their dreams.

Diana’s work has been featured by outlets including The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio’s 1A, The New York Times, and many others nationwide.

IJ’s 4 Pillars:

J’s work targets the core freedoms that form the foundation of a free society: the rights to own and enjoy property, speak freely, earn a living, and have a meaningful choice in your children’s education. We have litigated hundreds of cases on behalf of thousands of individuals under those four pillars, and Americans are measurably freer in each area as a direct result of our work.