Jerry H. Goldfeder

Adjunct Professor of Law

Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP
180 Maiden Lane
New York, NY 10038

Phone: 212-806-5857
Fax: 212-806-6006
[email protected]

Jerry H. Goldfeder is Special Counsel at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, specializing in election and campaign finance law, public integrity investigations, and regulatory compliance. Prior to joining Stroock, he served as Special Counsel to former New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo. He practices law in Manhattan, and has represented elected officials and candidates for public office for over thirty five years—from local office to President of the United States.

He recently completed a three year tenure as Chair of the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on New York City Affairs, and previously served for three years as Chair of its Committee on Election Law.

Professor Goldfeder is the author of the highly acclaimed treatise Goldfeder's Modern Election Law, now in its Fifth Edition. He has written articles on election law reform, the presidential election process, and a variety of other issues for scholarly journals and the popular press, and regularly appears on radio and TV as an expert on these subjects. Articles featuring him and his work have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other media. During the 2016 presidential election, he served as a consultant to CNN’s mini-series, the Race for the White House.

Prior to his admission to the bar, Prof. Goldfeder taught political science at UCLA and Brooklyn College. He was in the first class of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University, where he served on the Law Review.

Prof. Goldfeder, who also teaches Election Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, is the proud recipient of Fordham’s Adjunct Teacher of the Year (2015), and has been honored for his professional and community service by the Brooklyn Legal Services Corp. and the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty; he was recently presented with the Corporate Social Responsibility Award in Labor & Law by City & State.

He is a member of the Board of Advisors of Let America Vote, a member of the Board of the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute, and a trustee of the Museum of the City of New York.

Mailing Address

Fordham University School of Law
Legal Writing Program
150 West 62nd Street, Room 7-175
New York, NY 10023
    • "How Cuomo Can Tame N.Y.," Albany Times Union, November 4, 2010
    • "Look to New York City for Reform," Albany Times Union, July 26, 2010
    • "Election Law Developments," New York State Bar Association Journal, July/August 2010
    • "First Reform, Then the Economy," Albany Times Union, June 3, 2010
    • "Monserrate and the Question Of Pink Slips for Elected Officials, " New York Law Journal, January 20, 2010
    • "Let Gov. Deval Patrick Fill Ted Kennedy's Senate Seat," New York Daily News, September 1, 2009
    • Goldfeder’s Modern Election Law (Second Edition), New York Legal Publishing Co., August 2009
    • "New York State of Mindlessness [Let's Follow the 25th Amendment]," New York Times, June 10, 2009
    • "The 17th Amendment and Vacant Senate Seats," New York Law Journal, February 27, 2009
    • "Needed Now: Campaign Finance Reform," Albany Times Union, December 26, 2008 (co-author with Robert Abrams and Joel Cohen)
    • "In Case of Election Crisis, Congress Needs to Be Prepared," US News and World Report, October 15, 2008
    • "Governor Spitzer’s Dilemma [The Comptroller Problem]," New York Law Journal, December 19, 2006
    • "Could Terrorists Derail a Presidential Election?" Fordham Urban Law Journal, May 2005
    • "No More Mr. Nice Guy: Kicking Nader Off the Ballot," New York Sun, June 3, 2004
    • Columnist, "Democracy Watch," www.PoliticsNY.com, 2002-2004
    • "How to Get on the Ballot...and Stay on the Ballot!" The Center for Excellence in New York City Governance, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, NYU, May 2001 (Monograph)
    • "Silenced Majority [A Referendum on Rent Control]," New York Times, June 2, 1997
    • "Is This North Korea? [Let's Try to Democratize New York's Primary]", New York Times, November 18, 1995
    • "Time for City to Clean Up Our Act [Environmental Reform]," Newsday, July 30, 1991

  • Chair, Association of the Bar of the City of New York Special Committee on Election Law

    • Speaker, “Should New York City's Campaign Finance System Be a Model for the State?,” The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, University at Albany, December 2010
    • Lecturer, "How to Decide an Election Case," Annual Seminar for the Justices and Law Secretaries of the Appellate Division, Second Department, 2006-present
    • Speaker, Voter Participation Hearing of the New York City Charter Revision Commission, June 2, 2010
    • Featured Speaker, "How to Get on the Ballot ... and Stay on the Ballot!" Fordham Law School Joint Bar Association Symposium, June 1, 2010
    • Speaker, "The Price of Democracy - Corporate Money in Politics," New York University School of Law, April 2010
    • Moderator, "Helping America Vote," NYU Journal of Legislation and Public Policy Symposium, March 2010
    • Guest Speaker, "The Future of New York City Charter Reform," Association of the Bar of the City of New York (Municipal Affairs Committee), September 2009
    • CLE Faculty, "Post-Election Litigation Strategies," New York State Bar Association, May 2008
    • CLE Faculty, "Judicial Ethics," Association of the Bar of the City of New York, March 2008
    • CLE Faculty, "Using the Courts to Win the Presidency," Fordham Law School, November 2006
    • Moderator, "Is Free Speech a Victim of Campaign Finance Reform?" Smith Family Foundation Forum, October 2006
    • CLE Faculty, "The Ethics of Election Law," Democratic Lawyers Council, October 2006
    • CLE Faculty, "McCain-Feingold: Is it Promoting or Destroying Democracy?" Fordham Law School, February 2004
    • CLE Faculty, "The Ethics of Ballot Access Litigation," Association of the Bar of the City of New York, May 2003

  • BA, Brooklyn College, CUNY (1968); MA, Political Science, UCLA (1972);

    ABD, Political Science, UCLA (1974); JD, Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University (1979).