Jeffrey Mead Kurzon (born 1976) is a New York City attorney and politician.
Education
Kurzon graduated from McGill University Faculty of Law with a BCL/LLB in 2003, after studying abroad at the University of Aix-Marseille in France.[1]
Career
He began his career as a lawyer at Sidley Austin, which he later left to create his own law firm.[2]
Kurzon's firm represented law school graduates who sued in a class action their law schools, including New York Law School and Cooley Law School,[3] for misrepresenting their post-graduate employment statistics[4] to lure students to take on hundreds of thousands dollars in debt.[5]
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.[6]
Political career
Kurzon became involved in New York City politics in 2007[7] as one of the top fundraisers for Barack Obama, raising over $150,000 for the candidate[8] and organizing one of the earliest and largest grassroots groups in New York City in support of the candidate.[9]
2014 congressional election
In February 2013, Kurzon announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for New York's 7th congressional district against 22-year incumbent Nydia Velázquez.[10][11] Kurzon pledged to not accept any PAC or lobbyist money,[12] challenging Velázquez (who sits on the Financial Services Committee) to do the same.[13] After the Federal Election Commission issued guidance on Bitcoin, Kurzon announced he would be the first candidate in New York to accept bitcoin donations from individuals.[14]
In the June 24, 2014 primary, Kurzon lost to Velázquez by a large margin.[15][16]
Election results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Nydia M. Valezquez | 7,627 | 80.95 | |
| Democratic | Jeffrey M. Kurzon | 1,796 | 19.05 | |
| Total valid votes | 9,423 | 100% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Nydia M. Valezquez | 10,162 | 62.1 | |
| Democratic | Yungman Lee | 4,479 | 27.3 | |
| Democratic | Jeffrey M. Kurzon | 1,796 | 10.6 | |
| Total valid votes | 16,377 | 100% | ||
In October 2021, Kurzon joined Andrew Yang's Forward Party PAC team.[18]
External links
References
- ^ "Jeff Kurzon's Biography". Vote Smart. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
- ^ "An Ideal(ist) House Candidate from NYC". The Armenian Mirror Spectator. February 21, 2014.
- ^ "Cooley Law gets served some of its own medicine". The ABA Journal. August 2011.
- ^ "New York Law School sued by students over claims about graduates success". Bloomberg. August 10, 2011.
- ^ "Kurzon LLP sues Cooley Law school for defamation". The ABA Journal. July 2012.
- ^ "Huffington Post bloggers suit against AOL". Bloomberg. March 30, 2012.
- ^ "7th-district Congressional candidate refuses PAC, lobby money". DNAinfo. 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-05-20.
- ^ "David finds a new Goliath". New York Press. February 27, 2013. Archived from the original on June 5, 2014.
- ^ VoterBook NYC Group
- ^ "Attorney announces campaign against Nydia Velázquez". The Observer. February 2013. Retrieved 2016-08-12.
- ^ "Three challenge Velazquez". The Times Ledger. May 1, 2014.
- ^ "Attorney Jeffrey Kurzon announces his candidacy for Congress in downtown district". New York Press. March 3, 2013. Archived from the original on June 26, 2014.
- ^ "Nydia Velázquez unfazed by potential challengers". The Observer. March 2014.
- ^ "NY Congressional Candidate Jeff Kurzon". BetaBeat. 4 June 2014.
- ^ Mary Frost, Velazquez clobbers Kurzon in Democratic primary for 7th CD, Brooklyn Daily Eagle (June 25, 2014).
- ^ a b Representative in Congress: Election Returns June 24, 2014, New York State Board of Elections.
- ^ Representative in Congress: Election Returns June 28, 2016, New York State Board of Elections.
- ^ "Team". Forward Party. Retrieved 2021-10-11.