Diane Fener, Attorney

Diane Fener

Diane Fener attended Boston University and Brandeis University for undergraduate and graduate school, and earned a bachelor of arts degree and teaching certification before attending Georgetown University Law Center, where she served as president of the student bar association.

After graduation from law school in 1979, she was appointed by the courts in the District of Columbia to represent children and adults who could not afford to retain private counsel.

She later joined the firm of Fulbright & Jaworski at its Los Angeles office.

In 1955, she returned to the east coast to undertake an innovative Demonstration Project for the United States Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, serving for three years as a Juvenile Detention Specialist for the Virginia Public Defender Commission.  At the conclusion of that project, she was retained by the City of Virginia Beach, under another federal grant, to conduct an independent assessment of the local juvenile justice system and to make formal recommendations for improvements.

Ms. Fener's work in juvenile and family law has been commended by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, the funding agency for these projects, and by the Virginia Beach Juvenile Defender Center located in Washington, D.C.  She also serves on the Virginia Beach Community Criminal Justice Board and on the board of directors of the Friends of the Virginia Beach Juvenile Court.  She served for two years on the board of directors of the Hampton Roads Youth Center and helped to create that alternative school.  She has been a guest speaker at state conventions for the Virginia Public Defender Commission and Department of Criminal Justice Services.  She has been interviewed on the television program "DATELINE NBC" and quoted in the New York Times as an expert in juvenile law.  Ms. Fener is admitted to practice law in Virginia, the District of Columbia, and California.  Her extensive civil and criminal litigation experience includes numerous jury trials before state and federal courts.