John Couriel

Early life and education

Couriel's parents emigrated from Cuba in 1961. His father, John Louis Couriel, arrived as part of Operation Pedro Pan, a humanitarian effort that ultimately led to the evacuation of 14,000 children from Cuba. His mother, Maria Victoria Urtiaga, emigrated with her family. The two met as teenagers in Miami-Dade County in the late 1960s and married in 1973.

As a child, John Daniel Couriel attended grade school at St. Timothy's Catholic School. He was active in the Boy Scouts of America, and became an Eagle Scout. He graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in 1996, where he was president of his student government and active in the national high-school debate circuit, winning two state championships and other distincitions. He attended Harvard College from 1996 to 2000, graduating magna cum laude with an A.B. degree in Social Studies. As an undergraduate, he was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Political Review, a small claims legal advisor, and a research assistant to Professor John Henry Coatsworth, then of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. He also interned for the Foundation for Florida's Future, an education reform group founded by Jeb Bush.

In 2003, Couriel graduated from Harvard Law School, where he was an Editor of the Journal on Legislation and moot court semifinalist.

Legal career

In 2003 and 2004, Couriel served as law clerk to the Honorable John D. Bates, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He moved to New York in September 2004 and joined the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell. While at Davis Polk, Couriel worked on Capital Markets, Mergers and Acquisitions, and Litigation matters.

In 2009, Couriel returned to Miami as an Assistant United States Attorney. For three years, he prosecuted a wide range of federal offenses, including identity theft, firearms trafficking, narcotics importation, migrant trafficking, and other immigration crimes. In 2011, he led the successful prosecution of a document vendor and a ring of corrupt employees of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, who issued genuine Florida driver's licenses to scores of illegal immigrants. After rotating through the Office's Appeals and Major Crimes Sections, he joined the Economic Crimes Section, where he focused on Medicare fraud. He successfully prosecuted the owners of fraudulent pharmacies, durable medical equipment companies, and other enterprises.

Personal life

Couriel is married to Rebecca L. Toonkel, M.D. They adopted their son, Jonas Aaron, in 2011. Their daughter, Eden Sofia, was born in 2012. They live in Miami Beach.