AILA Presents Ira Kurzban with the Founders Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Monday, June 19, 2023

Washington, DC - The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) recognizes Ira Kurzban with the Founders Award, which is given from time to time to the person or entity having the most substantial impact on the field of immigration law or policy. Per his nomination for the award, “Ira Kurzban has been an unmatched leader in the field of immigration, both for clients and the practice, in the areas of litigation (asylum law, EB-5) association leadership (AILA president), political advocacy (founder of Immigrants’ List), [and] continuing legal education (Kurzban’s Sourcebook)” as well as mentorship and financial support. As one person wrote, “I can’t think of any single other individual who has made a larger impact overall on the Association.”

Mr. Kurzban is a founder of the law firm of Kurzban, Kurzban, Tetzeli & Pratt, P.A., of Miami, Florida. He is a past-national President and former General Counsel of AILA and is a Fellow of the American Bar Association. He has litigated over seventy-five federal cases concerning the rights of aliens, including Jean v. Nelson, Commissioner v. Jean, and McNary v. Haitian Refugee Center, Inc., which he argued before the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Kurzban is an adjunct faculty member in Immigration and Nationality Law at the University of Miami School of Law. He is the author of Kurzban’s Immigration Law Sourcebook, the most widely used two-volume immigration source in the United States in its 18th Edition and he has lectured and otherwise published extensively in the field of immigration law, including articles in the Harvard Law Review and Columbia University Press.

Mr. Kurzban has practiced Immigration and Nationality Law for over 40 years and has won numerous awards for his work. He was the first recipient of the Tobias Simon Pro Bono Service Award presented to him by the Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court for his work in protecting Haitian asylum seekers. He was selected as an Honorary Fellow by the University of Pennsylvania Law School for his work on behalf of refugees. He has been the recipient of the Wasserstein Public Interest Fellowship from Harvard Law School, and in 2020 he received the Leonard J. Theberge Award for Private International Law from the American Bar Association.

He holds a J.D. and M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and enhance the professional development of its members.