Ben Kern is an attorney and advocate with a distinguished track record of representing corporate and non-profit clients before state government.

At the Parkside Group, he oversees our state government relations work. During the start of the COVID pandemic, he led our efforts to help companies and trade association seek essential business designations so that they could remain open and later worked with state officials to safely re-open shopping malls, sporting arenas, movie theaters, and other businesses. His legislative and regulatory work on behalf of our corporate and trade association clients focuses on the entertainment, finance, transportation, health care, and cannabis sectors. On behalf of these clients, he has passed legislation to regulate small business lending, to authorize peer to peer car sharing in New York, and to authorize cannabis delivery in New York, among other victories.

Prior to the pandemic, Ben’s advocacy work secured millions of dollars in budget funding on behalf of clients in New York and New Jersey as well as the enactment of numerous legislative initiatives. He has organized legislative coalitions, drafted regulatory changes on behalf of a state agency, and worked on legislative matters and labor law litigation for multiple global law firms. As a result of these efforts, he has been named a Super Lawyers top-rated attorney in Government Relations, a Super Lawyers Rising Star in Government Relations, and a 40 Under 40 Rising Star by City and State.

Prior to beginning his government relations career, he worked in the Executive Chamber under Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, at the New York Democratic Senate Campaign Committee and in the Capitol Hill office of Congressman Maurice Hinchey. He also conducted research and translation work for the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations in support of their mission to ensure that perpetrators of Nazi atrocities are brought to justice.