About Jason
Jason Cruz was born in Seattle and raised in the Rainier Valley neighborhood. He attended Kennedy High School in Burien and then went on to the University of Washington where he majored in History. Jason continued on at the University of Washington for law school.
After receiving his J.D. and passing the bar, Jason practiced for three years in Washington state before moving to California. While in California, Jason practiced with a Southern California law firm representing companies in commercial and construction litigation issues. After moving back to Seattle in 2008, Jason continued his law practice. Jason opened the Cruz Law, PLLC, in the fall of 2011.
Jason writes a monthly column with the Northwest Asian Weekly. Jason has won several journalism awards for his work with the Northwest Asian Weekly. He also contributes to a blog focusing on the business and legal issues concerning the sport of Mixed Martial Arts – MMAPayout.com. The site is widely recognized as the authority on the business of MMA. Its readers are all over the world including Australia, Brazil, China and the Philippines. It has been cited by The New Yorker, The New York Times and on Deadspin.com. Cruz has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Washington Post and various other media discussing the business of mixed martial arts.
Jason has published two law review articles focusing on the First Amendment and Mixed Martial Arts. The article can be found in the University of Denver Law School’s Sports and Entertainment Journal, 17 U.Denv. Sports & Ent. L.J. (Spring 2015). The other article was published in The Marquette Sports Law Review in 2017, 27 Marq. Sports L. Rev. 355 (2017). He’s also written about the subject in the Sports Business Journal. He’s also written about the issue of Combat Sports and Antitrust in The Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport.
Jason is a member of the Washington and California (currently inactive) bar associations. He serves on the Executive Committee of the WSBA Business Law Section. He has served as a volunteer attorney for the King County Housing Justice Project, WSBA’s Home Foreclosure Legal Aid Project and currently volunteers for Wayfind (formerly the Washington Attorneys Assisting Community Organizations (WAACO)). Jason is a member of the Federal Bar Association of Washington where he serves as a volunteer with the Federal Bar’s Pro Bono Panel. He is also a member of the Washington Lawyers for the Arts, and the Sports Lawyers Association.