Source: http://kurzmannlaw.com/mark2.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 02:36:09+00:00

Document:
General Practice of Law with concentrations in complex federal and state litigation, computer technology, commercial law, real estate, civil rights, zoning and land use planning. Representation of a wide variety of domestic and international clients. Coordination of foreign litigation.
Vanderbilt University School of Law Nashville, Tennessee J.D. Degree, May 1976; Associate Editor, Vanderbilt Law Review; Course Teaching Assistant in Legal Writing Program; Research Assistant to Professor L. Harold Levinson; Member, Curriculum Committee; Student Attorney at Legal Services of Nashville.
Fordham University Bronx, New York M.A. Degree (Political Science), February 1974; Research Assistantship in Urban and Middle Eastern Affairs; Departmental Graduate Student Representative.
YESHIVA UNIVERSITY New York, New York B.A. Degree (Political Science), June 1970; Dean's List; Member of Pi Gamma Mu Honorary Society; Gottesman Award at Graduation; N.Y. Regents College Scholarship.
Supreme Court of the United States and other federal courts. Member of the Bars of the District of Columbia the States of New York and Tennessee.
Certificate of Appreciation from the Lawyer=s Fund for Client Protection of the State of New York, March, 1996, For Public Service on Behalf of the Administration of Justice.
The John Marshall Award For Outstanding Legal Achievement In The Preparation of Litigation, April 1978. The Marshall Awards are the highest honors awarded exclusively to attorneys by the Attorney General of the United States. I was the youngest person to have received this special recognition; Special Achievement Awards For Stained Superior Performance Of Duty, August 1977 and March 1978; Outstanding Performance Rating, March 1978; Letters of Commendation for the Attorney General and the Director of the FBI, October 1980.
Several 1998 appearances on CourTV, including seven appearances the [Johnny] Cochran & Co. program as an expert on government investigations, executive privilege and administrative law and an appearance as the featured guest expert, together with the ACLU=s resident Washington Freedom FOIA consultant, on the Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Acts.
U.S. Departments of Justice and Defense, Toxic Substances Pentagon Seminar, February 1980 - Defending Agent Orange Litigation; Attorney General's Advocacy Institute, September 1978 - How Evidentiary Privileges Relate To The Exemption Of The Freedom Of Information Act; U.S. Civil Service Commission Attorney Seminars, several occasions - Justice Department Policies and Practice In FOIA, Privacy And Sunshine Act Litigation.
Responsibilities included: The defense and prosecution of civil litigation in the federal district and appellate courts and the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in a very wide range of cases embracing the entirety of federal government activity including national security, defense, foreign relations, law enforcement and trade regulation; the representation of a major private insurance company in connection with complex litigation arising from its cooperation with a government law enforcement project and of individual federal officers sued in their personal capacities for violations of civil and constitutional rights.
Lead counsel in a number of wellBknown cases, some of first impression, involving issues of major historical and political significance. Two successful claims of Executive Privilege by the Attorney General of the United States, foreign relations and national security, administrative law and policy, civil rights, law enforcement, suretyship, insurance and construction contracting.
Noteworthy cases include the successful defense of the CIA, FBI, Department of State, National Security Agency, Department of Defense and other federal agencies in the landmark Freedom of Information Act case brought by the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Among the documents protected from disclosure were the nowBfamous VENONA intercepts of Soviet diplomatic cables which implicated the Rosenbergs. These were decrypyted by a highly secret joint US and British project and were declassified only recently through the efforts of a commission chaired by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. I also successfully defended the U.S. Parole Commission in the first case brought under the Government in the Sunshine Act.
Le BlancBSternberg v. Village of Airmont - 67 F.3d 412 (2d Cir. 1995). Original research and analysis for the plaintiffs= federal district court case which led to the filing and success of the landmark challenge to local gerrymandering and fair housing violations. Personal counsel to the lead plaintiff.
Woe v. Cuomo - 638 F.Supp 1506 (U.S.D.C. E.D.N.Y. 1986), Aff=d in part and remanded in part, 801 F.2d 627 (2d Cir. 1986). TwoBweek trial as lead trial counsel, involving complex, expert psychiatric and psychological testimony, in major case establishing the rights of involuntarily committed mental patients to constitutionally sufficient medical care or to unconditional release. Verbatim excerpts of my examination of the experts are quoted approvingly in the reported district court opinion.
Meeropol v. Levi, et al. - (Several USDC D.C. and D.C. Cir decisions) Lead counsel in the largest case ever filed under the Freedom of Information Act in which the release and statutory exemptions of hundreds of thousands of government documents concerning convicted atomic bomb spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg was contested. I represented the FBI, CIA, NSA, Departments of State and Energy and other agencies in the landmark litigation raising multiple complex issues of law enforcement, intelligence gathering, foreign relations, cold war espionage and national security. Later, the famous VENONA Soviet diplomatic cables which were involved and, which were decrypted jointly by the United States and Great Britain, were released to the public. I played a key role in formulating and implementing the litigation strategy (including a White House strategy session) which kept these highly classified national security documents secret despite intense external pressure. Negotiation of the largest attorney=s fee settlement under the act. I was the recipient of the highest award for litigation excellence from the Attorney General of the United States for work in this matter. Substantial national press coverage. I was interviewed in an article published in the New York Times. In the appellate decision upholding the grant of summary judgment on the key issues of the scope of the government=s document and file searches which I successfully litigated, Judge Bork noted that this district court litigation was Aextraordinarily complex.@ 790 F.2d at p. 946.
Miller v. CIA - (USDC D.C.). Successful defense of Freedom of Information Act action by Middle East Correspondent Judith Miller of the New York Times for documents on the alleged use by the CIA of journalists and clergymen as intelligence sources.
Liuzzo v. United States - 508 F.Supp. 923 (USDC E.D.MI 1981). Successful defense of the Federal Tort Claims Act case brought by the family of civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo. Mrs. Liuzzo was murdered in the presence of FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe, Jr., by members of the Ku Klux Klan. I briefed and argued two successful claims of executive privilege by the Attorney General of the United States.
Charterhouse Ins. Brokers Ltd. v. N.H. Ins. Co., et al. - (U.S.D.C. M.D.IL 1980), Aff=d, 667 F.2d 600 (7th Cir. 198l). Successful defense in the district court of the New Hampshire Insurance Company (an AIG subsidiary) and the United States in a $35 million negligent supervision and fraud action. The case was brought after revelation of AIG=s cooperation in an FBI undercover sting operation which went awry. It involved fraudulent surety, performance and payment bonds. This is the first reported case dismissed under Rule 37(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure on a defendant=s motion for discovery sanctions without a prior order to compel discovery. Affirmed by the Court of Appeals in an opinion citing my performance in the case. The undercover operation and litigation were the subject of a front page New York Times story.
In Re Agent Orange Multidistrict Litigation - Defense of the United States and former Cabinet officials in this products liability case filed by Viet Nam era veterans in which all third-party complaints were dismissed and the government was absolved form any duty to contribute to the settlement fund. Two arguments before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.

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