David Reiss
Consumer Financial Services Law
Rating Agencies Regulation
Real Estate Finance Law
Real Estate Law
Biography
Professor Reiss concentrates on real estate finance and community development. He is the founding director of the Community Development Clinic and teaches property-related courses. He is actively involved within the Law School community, currently serving as Research Director of the Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship (CUBE).
Professor Reiss is currently Chair of the New York City Rent Guidelines Board. He is a member of the American Law Institute and is a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and the American Bar Foundation.
His scholarship focuses on the secondary mortgage markets, predatory lending, and housing policy. He is the author of the book on federal housing policy, Paying for the American Dream: How to Reform the Market for Mortgages (Oxford University Press, 2020). Professor Reiss is a frequently quoted expert on legal developments in the real estate finance sector. His comments have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and many real estate-focused news outlets, and he is a frequent contributor to The Hill.
Prior to joining Brooklyn Law School, Professor Reiss was a visiting clinical associate professor at the Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice. Previously, he was an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in its Real Estate Department and an associate at Morrison & Foerster in its Land Use and Environmental Law Group. He also served as a law clerk to Judge Timothy Lewis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He received his B.A. from Williams College and his J.D., Order of the Coif, from the New York University School of Law. Before law school, he worked for Community Access, a not-for-profit housing provider that assists people who have psychiatric disabilities as they make the transition from shelters and hospitals to independent living.
Professor Reiss is also the editor of REFinBlog.com, which tracks developments in the law and practices related to the real estate finance industry.