Daniel (Danny) Diaz Leyva, Chairman and CEO of Diaz Leyva Group PLLC, has joined Day Pitney LLP as a partner in its Real Estate and Environmental practice. Florida-native Diaz Leyva is a well-established and successful commercial and high-end residential real estate lawyer who started his own firm, Diaz Leyva Group, in Coral Gables, Florida, in 2016. He is bringing with him four other members of his firm, Attorney Amanda G. Gomez, and paralegals Ana Siddiqui, Ana Laura Garcia, and Dayleen Anchia. Diaz Leyva will head up the firm's Florida Real Estate practice. The team is based in the firm's Miami office.

"I've known Danny for years. He is a skilled practitioner who has built an impressive real estate practice and team," stated Manuel A. Garcia-Linares, Day Pitney Florida Managing Partner. "He is an active member of the South Florida business, legal and philanthropic communities and will fit seamlessly into our firm's burgeoning South Florida practice."

Diaz Leyva is a trusted advisor with a broad range of transactional experience. He co-founded the boutique law practice Diaz Leyva Group, where he represented owner-operators, investors, family offices and developers, as well as bank and non-bank lenders. His practice supports clients in structuring, joint venturing, acquiring, financing, leasing, developing and selling real estate, as well as in loan transactions for bank and non-bank lenders. Diaz Leyva often acts as an outside general counsel and has extensive experience in government relations counseling clients with issues before local and state government.

"With the addition of Danny and his team, we are able to further complement and strengthen our Real Estate practice, while also expanding the scope of our corporate transactional services in South Florida through private equity, mergers and acquisitions, investment funds, and family office work that his team is involved with," added R. Scott Beach, Chair of Day Pitney's Corporate and Business Law department.

Diaz Leyva is actively engaged in the communities in which he lives and works, and has been recognized by several organizations for his service. He is a Kentucky Colonel—an honorary title bestowed by the state's governor in recognition of noteworthy accomplishments, contributions, remarkable deeds and outstanding service to a community, state or the nation—received for his dedication and efforts in education, program development and philanthropy. Diaz Leyva has also received the Ruth Shack Leadership Award from the Miami Foundation. This award is given annually to an emerging leader who embodies the qualities of ethical leadership, dedication and service to Greater Miami. He was also recognized with the Head of School Alumni Award from Palmer Trinity School given to an alumnus annually for distinguished service to the community.

"My team and I are looking forward to joining our successful practice with Day Pitney's full-service capabilities," added Diaz Leyva. "Our clients will continue to experience the same accessibility, quality of work, and dedicated team they have come to know from us, but now with access to and support from Day Pitney's broader real estate practice, as well as its litigation, trusts and estates, and corporate capabilities. It is truly a strategic fit for both parties that will provide immediate benefits and never before available capabilities to our current clients now and well into the future."

Diaz Leyva currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Palmer Trinity School, the Walking Mountains Science Center and the Board of the Zoo Miami Foundation. Previously, he served on the Palmer Trinity Alumni Board and the Board of Trustees of Miami Dade College, the nation's largest and most diverse public institution of higher education. He helped establish and served as the executive director of the U.S. chapter of the Consejo Empresarial de América Latina (CEAL), an organization that promotes economic development throughout Latin America. Diaz Leyva has also served on the Board of Directors of Anthem Bank & Trust, Florida Health Choices, CHARLEE Homes for Children, Banyan Health Systems, Latin Builders Association, Hispanic Business Initiative Fund and the University of Miami Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies. He is a member of the Cuban American Bar Association in Miami.

Diaz Leyva earned his B.A., with honors, from the University of Miami and his J.D. from St. Thomas University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in Florida and the District of Columbia.