Harvey Rosenfield, founder of The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, is one of the nation's foremost consumer advocates. Trained as a public interest lawyer, Rosenfield authored Proposition 103 and organized the campaign that led to its passage by California voters in 1988 despite over $80 million spent in opposition  (still a record).

He has co-authored groundbreaking initiatives on HMO reform and utility rate deregulation (Proposition 9, 1998). Rosenfield is the author of the book, Silent Violence, Silent Death: The Hidden Epidemic of Medical Malpractice. (Essential Books, 1994).

Rosenfield, who established FTCR in 1985, has worked for the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Congress, in private practice, as a staff attorney for Ralph Nader's Public Citizen Congress Watch and as the Program Director for the California Public Interest Research Group (CalPIRG).

Rosenfield graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College and obtained a joint Law and Masters degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Congressman Jerrold Nadler represents New York's Eighth Congressional district. Congressman Nadler was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1992 after serving for 16 years in the New York State Assembly. He was re-elected to his seventh full term in 2004 with a resounding 80 percent of the vote. Throughout his career he has championed civil rights, civil liberties, efficient transportation, and a host of progressive issues such as access to health care, support for the arts and protection of the Social Security system. He is considered an unapologetic defender of those who might otherwise be forgotten by American law or the economy, and is respected specifically for his creative and pragmatic legislative approaches.

In his roles as an Assistant Whip and a senior member of both the House Judiciary and the House Transportation Committee, Congressman Nadler has the opportunity on a daily basis to craft and shape the major laws that govern our country. From his leadership in response to the September 11th terrorist attacks on his district, to his insight and policymaking prominence on issues facing Israel and the Middle East, Nadler has constantly sought to be steadfast and responsive in his service to New York and the nation. 

Congressman Nadler is perhaps best known as a prominent member of the House Judiciary Committee. It was there that, as a third-term representative in 1998, he rose to national prominence as a vigorous defender of the Constitution during the Presidential impeachment hearings. Congressman Nadler's unwavering demand for bipartisan adherence to the Constitution earned him national praise.

A well-regarded source of political opinion and policy expertise, Nadler has been a featured guest on nearly every significant public affairs and news program on air, from CNN's Crossfire and Larry King Live to PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lerher to NBC's Meet the Press. Nadler is also a reliable commentator for major print news sources in the nation, as well as for a wide variety of international outlets.

Nadler is a graduate of Crown Heights Yeshiva, Stuyvesant High School, Columbia University, and Fordham Law School. He lives on the West Side of Manhattan with his wife, Joyce Miller. They have one son, Michael.

Assemblyman Pete Grannis was first elected to the Assembly in the fall of 1974 and represents the Upper East Side of Manhattan and Roosevelt Island. He serves as a full-time legislator.

Mr. Grannis, as chair of the Assembly Insurance Committee since 1992, has authored landmark legislation on behalf of consumers, including New York's precedent-setting Community Rating/Open Enrollment law which revolutionized the way small group and individual health insurance policies are sold in the state. As a result of his work, New York banned health care discrimination in the individual and small group markets on the basis of a person's age, sex, health condition or occupation and, for the first time, provided complete portability of health insurance coverage by closing gaps in the law which had allowed consumers to lose their coverage when they changed jobs or insurers. Many states followed New York in adopting similar provisions, and the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 incorporates much of the portability standard enacted four years earlier in New York.

Mr. Grannis also has authored a long list of consumer protection laws for people in managed care plans that are among the strongest in the nation, and he is a leader in the fight to expand access to high quality health care coverage for all New Yorkers. His 1996 Managed Care Consumer Protection Act set out a range of new provisions to improve disclosure to consumers, regulate utilization review activities, outlaw so-called gag provisions on providers, establish due process standards for credentialing and termination of health care providers and enhance access to specialty care.

Mr. Grannis has developed important consumer legislation in the life, property and casualty areas as well, including a pioneering law requiring life insurance companies to report annually on the socially responsive investments and charitable contributions they make in New York, and measures to ensure the availability of homeowners' insurance in coastal areas. As co-chair of the Assembly Speaker's Task Force on Auto Insurance, he has championed far-reaching reforms designed to bring down New York's high automobile insurance rates.

Shoshana Bookson serves as a senior partner at Shandell, Blitz, Blitz & Bookson, LLP. She is known as a tireless advocate for injured people. Shoshana started her career assisting Richard Shandell with his complex trials. From that in depth tutelage she has developed into a well respected trial attorney throughout the city. Defendants have learned that she is a tough but fair advocate. That reputation has earned her several seven figure settlements and verdicts.

Shoshana has served as President of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association (NYSTLA), previously having served as its' Parliamentarian and on its board of directors for several years. She also serves as Chair of The Women's Caucus and is a member of several committees. She actively lectures other lawyers through seminars and frequently advocates the rights of the injured to our elected representatives. Shoshana has actively and effectively lobbied in both Albany and Washington D.C. to help fight the lies perpetrated by the insurance companies and their lobbyists. Whatever the issue, Shoshana is always on the side of the consumers and the injured, passionately and eloquently arguing their cause.

Shoshana is fluent in both English and Hebrew and has often helped clients whose unfamiliarity with English and this country could have hurt them.