Joel Hyatt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joel Z. Hyatt is a prominent businessman and attorney and American politician of the Democratic party. He is the founder of Hyatt Legal Services, and was featured in the law firm's television commercials speaking the slogan, "I'm Joel Hyatt and you have my word on it." He is Jewish.

Hyatt founded Hyatt Legal Services in 1977 as a low-cost legal service and later founded Hyatt Legal Plans.

Hyatt was a founding member of the U.S. Senate Democratic Leadership Circle and was a member of that group from 1981 to 1986. He was Democratic National Committee's treasurer from 1981 to 1983.

He is the son-in-law of former U.S. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum and in 1994, when Metzenbaum decided to retire from the Senate, Hyatt ran to replace him. Hyatt lost to then Ohio Lt. Gov. R. Michael DeWine.

Hyatt has since worked as a fund raiser for the Democratic party and is a business partner of former U.S. Vice President Albert A. Gore Jr. In 2004, Hyatt and Gore purchased Newsworld International, a cable news channel, programmed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which airs news programming from around the world. On August 1, Gore and Hyatt relaunched the network as Current TV, a young adult-programmed news service.

Hyatt teaches at Stanford University's school of business. He is a member of the board of trustees of Morehouse College.