Wednesday, October 23, 2019
YLS '90: David Yassky
Among a group of fascinating smart people, David Yassky was one of the smartest and definitely one of the most fascinating. He came to Yale Law from undergrad at Princeton and high school at Dalton in New York. We were from very different places, but became friends. We played squash quite a few times, and I lost while learning a lot about the game. He was funny, too, which was a real gift in a pressure-cooker environment.
In class, his gift for understanding policy was quickly obvious. He thought not only about principles, but about outcomes, which was a balanced wisdom that others like me only picked up years or decades later.
His career since law school has been a fascinating mix of academic and policy work. Early on, he worked for the Mayor's office in New York on budget issues, and for Senator Schumer as Chief Counsel for the Subcommittee on crime. In 2001, he was elected to the New York City Council from a Brooklyn district that included Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope. That led to a later appointment as the Chairman of the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, which meant that everytime I got in a cab in New York I was welcomed by the familiar voice of David Yassky on the little video that played each time-- it was kind of reassuring!
He excelled as a professor at Brooklyn Law School, and later became the Dean at Pace University's law school in White Plains.
Most recently--and this really brings things full circle back to his talents in law school--he was chosen by NY Governor Andrew Cuomo as his Director of State Policy. Like many of my other fellow travelers, he seems to have landed in a good place.
