| Jeff Kurzon | |
| Birth Name: | Jeffrey Mead Kurzon |
| Party: | Independent |
| Otherparty: | Forward |
| Residence: | Brooklyn, New York, US |
| Occupation: | Attorney |
| Alma Mater: | McGill University |
Jeffrey Mead Kurzon (born 1976) is a New York City attorney and politician.
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]
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]
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]
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]
In October 2021, Kurzon joined Andrew Yang's Forward Party PAC team.[17]