Jeff Kurzon

Jeff Kurzon
Jeff Kurzon (left) and Lawrence Lessig at a march for campaign finance reform in Jan 2014
Personal details
Political party Democrat
Residence Brooklyn
Alma mater McGill University
Occupation Attorney

Jeffrey Mead "Jeff" Kurzon, born in 1976, is a New York City attorney and politician.

Education and early career

Jeff Kurzon graduated from McGill Law School in 2003, after studying abroad at the University of Aix-Marseille in France. He began his career as a lawyer at Sidley Austin, which he later left to create his own law firm.[1]

Public interest lawyering

Defense of indebted law students

Kurzon's firm represent law school graduates who sued in a class action their law schools, including New York Law School and Cooley Law School,[2] for misrepresenting their post-graduate employment statistics[3] to lure students to take on hundreds of thousands dollars in debt.[4]

Defense of unpaid Huffington Post bloggers

Jeff Kurzon was the lead attorney who filed a lawsuit representing a class of about 9,000 unpaid Huffington Post bloggers, claiming that the Huffington Post and its acquirer AOL unjustly made profits by using the unpaid writers' work.[5]

Political career

Kurzon became involved in New York City politics in 2007 [6] as one of the top fundraisers for Barack Obama, raising over $150,000 for the candidate[7] and organizing one of the earliest and largest grassroots groups in New York City in support of the candidate.[8]

Campaign finance pledge

In February 2013, Kurzon declared his candidacy[9] and is on the ballot for the NYC Democratic Primary of June 24, 2014,[10] against 22-year incumbent Nydia Velázquez.[11]

Kurzon pledged to not accept any PAC or lobbyist money,[12] challenging his opponent sitting in the Financial Services Committee to do the same.[13] Also, after the Federal Election Commission issued guidance on Bitcoin, Jeff Kurzon announced he would be the first candidate in New York to accept bitcoin donations from individuals.[14]

In June 2014, he lost the primary to Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez.[15]

See also

External links

References