Biography
Joel Kurtzberg is a member of Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP's litigation practice group.
Joel’s practice is focused on general commercial litigation with extensive experience in First Amendment/media law, insurance/reinsurance, securities law, and antitrust. He frequently appears on behalf of newspapers, broadcasters, journalists, and others on First Amendment issues and other constitutional matters but has just as regularly appeared on behalf of insurance companies in large coverage and reinsurance disputes and leading companies (and their officers and directors) in securities and antitrust actions. Joel is recognized among New York's top First Amendment litigators by Chambers USA, and has been named to the 2015 New York Metro Super Lawyers list of top business litigators.
Joel is currently an Adjunct Professor at Brooklyn Law School, where he teaches a class about Mass Media Law. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Fordham University School of Law, where he has co-taught a class about Internet Law that focuses on First Amendment, intellectual property, and privacy issues in cyberspace.
Joel was formerly the Chair of the Media Law Committee for the New York State Bar Association. He was also an editor of the American Bar Association’s First Amendment and Media Litigation Committee Newsletter and has been an active member of the New York State Bar Association’s Media Law Committee, the American Bar Association’s First Amendment and Media Litigation Committee, and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York’s Communications and Media Law Committee. He was elected to be a member of The American Law Institute in 2007.
Joel has also worked for several years as a “coach” for the Brooklyn Tech High School’s mock trial team. He has also done a considerable amount of pro bono work with Sanctuary for Families, an organization dedicated to serving victims of domestic violence. In 2003, Joel received an award for Excellence in Pro Bono Advocacy from Sanctuary for Families’ Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services. He currently serves as a member of Sanctuary for Families’ Legal Advisory Committee.
Between college and law school, Joel spent two years teaching junior high school students in inner city New Orleans through the Teach for America program. Joel joined the Firm in 1997, after completing his clerkship and became a partner in 2005.