Jay Hansen graduated from Wheaton College (IL) in 1967 with a degree in chemistry and did additional graduate work in chemistry, mathematics and education. After ten years of public school teaching, he obtained his law degree with honors in 1979 from I.I.T./Chicago Kent College of Law. Since then, he has devoted his practice to community association law, in Illinois from 1979 to1985, and in California from 1985 to the present.

Jay has been chosen to be a member of the Community Associations Institute ("CAI") College of Community Association Lawyers, an honor conferred on approximately 120 lawyers nationwide, eighteen in California and three in Epsten Grinnell & Howell. He has been active as a writer and speaker on community association issues on both the local and national level, focusing on issues concerning association meetings, parliamentary law, insurance, and drafting governing documents. Since 2005 he has taught CAI's "Essentials" class for association board members and managers for the San Diego Chapter and periodically for other chapters. He has also taught CAI's Common Interest Development Class. In 2004, his article "Difficult Parlimentary Issues in Meetings, Elections and Voting" was selected for publication in the Journal of Community Association Law. For an article on Record Keeping, Jay received an Editor's Award in 2003 from CAI's Greater Inland Empire Chapter and received the Speaker of the Year Award in 2004 from CAI's San Diego Chapter. He prepares the firm’s annual Resource Book which contains the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, pertinent sections of the Corporations Code and other relevant statutes applicable to community associations. Jay also prepares a series of checklists that are part of the Resource Book to assist boards and community association managers in fulfilling their statutory duties. He has also developed a checklist and explanation of key coverage issues to seek or to avoid when selecting community association insurance policies, and has published multiple articles on association insurance issues. He has taught seminars and a multi-session course for community association board members through local community colleges both in California and Illinois.

Before moving to California, Jay drafted portions of 1984 amendments to Illinois Condominium Property Act and was one of the authors of the 1985 Historical and Practice Notes to Illinois Condominium Property Act, Illinois Annotated Statutes (Smith-Hurd), West Publishing Company.