David Ellen

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service

Contact Details

Bio
Courses

David started his legal career as a law clerk for Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer when they were each on the U.S. Court of Appeals, and then for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court. Following his clerkships, David worked at the Federal Communications Commission as a senior lawyer helping to implement the Telecommunications Act of 1996. From there, David embarked on a private-sector legal career including roles as Deputy General Counsel of IAC, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Cablevision Systems Corporation and Senior Executive Vice President of Charter Communications (from which he retired in late 2023). In these various roles, David engaged with a broad array of legal issues including around public policy and regulation.

David has also been active throughout his career in the non-profit world. He is currently President of the Board of Trustees of Hudson Guild, a settlement house based in Chelsea, and also Founder and Board Chair of Open Squash, a non-profit that operates community squash centers that aim to be affordable and inclusive to all.

David received a JD from Harvard Law School, where he was President of the Harvard Law Review. He also has a BA from Harvard College and a master’s degree in political theory from Cambridge University, where he was a Marshall Scholar.

Courses

Fall 2024

PADM-GP.2109.: Legal Literacy: What Public Service Leaders Need to Know About the American Legal System

The United States is a very law-driven society, with many of the most important issues and disputes of the day ending up in the courts -- and in the newspapers. This course is designed to help public service students understand key aspects of the U.S. legal system.

Part I of the course (roughly two-thirds) examines the overall legal framework governing how federal, state and local regulatory agencies make public policy, whether it is the lead-in-drinking-water rules issued by the federal Environmental Protection Agency or the safe biking rules issued by the New York City Department of Transportation. Economics and management are essential for sound policy design and implementation, but if there is no legal authorization for a policy, or if the policy would be inconsistent with existing law, or if it was enacted in a procedurally defective way, it is not valid and cannot be enforced – at least not without a change in the law. This part of the course covers topics that range from the basic legal requirements for valid policymaking to the constitutional rules about the operation of different agencies, the balance of power between agencies and courts in interpreting regulatory statutes, and the rules around overlapping and sometimes conflicting federal, state and local regulatory regimes. Part I also covers the topic of private “tort” and “class action” lawsuits, which have played a central role in the regulation of harmful activities alongside government agencies.

Part II of the course (roughly one-third) promotes general legal literacy by examining a broad array of headline-worthy lawsuits in the media and the important legal issues underlying them. For example, towards the end of the Obama administration, the Supreme Court, in a closely divided vote, ruled that ObamaCare insurance subsidies apply to federal as well as state insurance plans. But how did the lawsuit get to the Supreme Court, why was the vote so close, and what lessons can be learned from the lawsuit for healthcare policymakers? As another example, the New York City Council is suing the Mayor over the enforcement of new expanded housing voucher rules enacted by the City Council (after overriding a mayoral veto) and one of the Mayor’s defenses is that the city rules violate New York State law. But what state law exactly and why does New York City need to comply with state law? Each class in Part II of the course covers a handful of such lawsuits and legal issues from different areas, and will largely be hand-picked by the students.

Download Syllabus