Representative Denis Márquez Lebrón

Denis Márquez Lebron, a native of Gurabo, is the youngest of four brothers. He grew up in the Celada neighborhood of said town where he studied in public schools until 1981 when he was admitted to the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. There he began his activism in the PIP Youth motivated by his first contact with the independence organization in his people’s committee. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences with a concentration in Labor Relations, he completed graduate studies in Public Administration. In 1992 he graduated magna cum laude from the Law School of the Inter-American University, where he founded the Law Students Cooperative.

He worked as a Professor at the Polytechnic University from 1987 to 1992 and as a Professor of Commercial Law, Civil Law and Social Sciences courses from 1999 to 2011 at various universities in the country. He was an advisor to the legislative delegation of the Puerto Rican Independence Party from 1993 to 1996 and then, together with his friend and also an advisor to the PIP, José Torres Valentín, he began private practice. As a labor lawyer he has represented several union organizations and his former office collaborated in the legal representation of special education children in Rosa Lydia Vélez’s class dispute. In the years 2008-2009 he was a member of the Board of Directors of Legal Services of Puerto Rico, an entity that provides legal assistance to people without resources in civil cases. Besideshe has served as an observer for the Bar Association and has held various positions in community and recreational organizations.

He has held the following positions within the PIP: municipal legislator and president of the Gurabo Committee, Electoral Commissioner of Precinct 2 of San Juan, chaired the Evaluation Commission after the 2008 elections and Secretary of Political Education. Along with other lawyers, he represented the PIP in the “files case”, achieving an important judicial victory in which for the first time the cause of action for discrimination against a political institution was recognized in our jurisdiction. He has also been a PIP lawyer in many other instances.

His experience as a lawyer has strengthened Denis’s particular interest and detailed knowledge of the issues of public employment and the principle of merit, workers’ rights, special education and access to justice, health and human rights.

Author of the book of essays “From Celada to San Juan” (2013).

Currently, he is the Secretary of Political Organization and Spokesperson of the PIP in the House of Representatives after having been elected as a representative by accumulation in 2016 and revalidated in 2020.