Teresa E. Dietz
Teresa E. Dietz
associate | orange county
t. 714.256.5000 | f. 714.256.5050
Teresa Dietz is originally from Washington, D.C., where her father practiced law in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. After a visit to Sausalito in December one year, Teresa moved to California, where she attended San Diego State University's School of Business. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Business, was the director of the Internship Bureau, made the Dean's List, and served on the Yearbook committee. Teresa pledged Delta Sigma Pi, an International Business Fraternity.
She next attended and graduated with a Juris Doctor degree from Thomas Jefferson School of Law, where she served as Assistant Editor of the Criminal Justice Journal Law Review and studied International Law at Cambridge University's Trinity College in Cambridge, England. In 1993, Teresa opened her own civil litigation practice, serving small business owners and advising corporations on their business operations, labor relations, and transactional needs.
In 2004, Teresa was an advisor to a business that provided litigation support for the workers' compensation community. After the passage of SB899, Teresa joined the State Compensation Insurance Fund's Legal Department in San Diego in 2005. In her first year, she was tasked with creating the first Lien Unit and went on to provide seminars to claims management and claims adjusters on workers' compensation issues. Teresa was instrumental in obtaining a Court of Appeal decision that enforced defendants' rights to rely on their contracted fee agreements with medical providers, divesting the WCAB of jurisdiction to adjudicate such matters in the Daniel Streeter case.
Between 2009 and 2024, Teresa worked with law firms that handled workers' compensation claims for local municipalities, school districts, hospitals, various insurance carriers, and employers. She also served as Senior Deputy County Counsel for the County of San Diego.
Since 2000, Teresa has acted as a Judge Pro Tem for the Superior Court and the San Diego WCAB, is listed as an arbitrator at the San Diego WCAB, volunteered as a moot court judge for local law schools, lectured for the State Bar of California on workers' compensation issues, and served as co-chair and chair of the Workers' Compensation section of the San Diego County Bar Association for 10 years.
Her personal interests include German Shepherd rescue and training, stock car racing, and deep-sea tournament sport fishing.
Juris Doctor from Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, CA
Bachelor of Science, Business from San Diego State University