Page 12 - Miami Vol 7 No 1

Jed Kurzban
THE DIFFERENCE MAKER
Superstar
AALM: When did you rst know you wanted to become an attorney?
Kurzban: I rst wanted to become an attorney when I watched my father, a plainti s’ attorney go to trial when I was only 12 or 13. He made a brilliant argu- ment as to why his clients deserved jus- tice and how no jury should accept the injustice pro ered or the minute value the defendants were placing on the plainti ’s injuries. e plainti was an ironworker who had his foot crushed by a crane ball that was dropped 50 feet. e defendants admitted liability midtrial and my father ended his closing argument by telling the jury not to accept the pennies that the de- fendants claimed the case was worth, and threw a handful of pennies into the air. I saw the pennies glimmer and catch the light in their coppery magni cence before they hit the ground. e judge yelled at my father. It was that moment I knew I was hooked and wanted to be a trial attorney, but to this day, I have yet to throw pennies in the air.
AALM: Do you have any mentors or professors that encouraged you along the
way? What is the best lesson they taught you?
Kurzban: e obvious answer to this would be my father. He was and is my mentor through law school, while I clerked at the law rm and a er I joined the rm as a licensed attorney. My father is an old school aggressive plainti ’s attorney who encouraged me to nd my own way. He gave me the opportunity to take on a broad range of cases. A er several years of tak- ing on smaller cases, I assisted my father with larger cases and eventually got my rst medical malpractice client. I instantly fell in love with medicine and the cerebral learning necessary to discuss medicine with the doctors who had not followed their own standards of care and caused harm to the plainti . My father allowed me to nd my own way and my own love for the law. Now, most of my practice is dedi- cated to medical malpractice and wrongful death on behalf of plainti s.
AALM: What experiences have taught you the most?
Kurzban: As much as I would like to say winning trials, teaching the litigation
skills course at the University of Miami, or giving seminars, the truth is, the two trials I have lost in my career have taught me the most. e experiences were gut wrenching, and I felt like I had let down my clients, my rm, my family and myself. It is one thing to be told how important it is to pick a jury; it is another to know you have done your best and achieved every- thing you wanted throughout the trial, but lost because you simply picked the wrong jury. I had to reexamine everything, I did and ultimately came to conclusions that I am not sure I would have reached without these terrible losses.
AALM: What do you nd particularly rewarding about your practice?
Kurzban: My clients. I have never been one to worry about fame or the monetary gains of the practice. When I rst began to practice, my father sent me to watch Miami attorney JB Spence in trial. I had no idea who the man was, but whenever I spoke to attorneys older than me, they spoke about the Titan. It made me realize the rewards of the practice, and the satisfaction you achieve when helping your clients. We put
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