Brooklyn Law School Professor David Reiss concentrates his study and practice in real estate issues and community development. He was most recently a Visiting Clinical Associate Professor at the Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice. Previously, he was an associate in the New York office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in its Real Estate Department and an associate at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco in its Land Use and Environmental Law Group. He was also a law clerk to Judge Timothy Lewis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. His article, "Subprime Standardization: How Rating Agencies Allow Predatory Lending to Flourish in the Secondary Mortgage Market" in the Florida State University Law Review was granted an award as the best article of 2006 on a topic dealing with consumer financial services law by the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers. His other publications include “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Future of Federal Housing Finance Policy: A Study of Regulatory Privilege” in the Alabama Law Review (forthcoming); “The Federal Government’s Implied Guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s Obligations: Uncle Sam Will Pick Up the Tab” in the Georgia Law Review; "Modeling a Response to Predatory Lending: The New Jersey Home Ownership Security Act of 2002" (with B. Azmy) in the Rutgers Law Journal; “Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Program in New York City” in the ABA’s Journal of Affordable Housing & Development Law; and “Housing Abandonment and New York City’s Response” in the New York University Review of Law & Social Change. He is a frequent contributor to op ed pages, including those of the National Law Journal, Legal Times, Christian Science Monitor and Philadelphia Inquirer and his views on a variety of real estate and land use issues have appeared in the Washington Post, Village Voice, New York Newsday, NPR, TheStreet.com, TheDeal.com and Bankrate.com, among other media outlets. He received his B.A. from Williams College and his J.D. from the New York University School of Law. Prior to attending law school, he worked for four years at Community Access, a not-for-profit that helped people with psychiatric disabilities make the transition from shelters and hospitals to independent living.
Articles
Reforming the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Market, Hamline Law Review (2012)
This essay is a lightly-edited version of a talk given at the “Federal Housing Finance...
Three Principles for Federal Housing Policy, Probate & Property (2012)
Isolating first principles of housing policy helps identify what is intrinsic to that field. Once...
First Principles for an Effective Federal Housing Policy, Brooklyn Journal of International Law (2010)
Federal housing policy is heavily funded and made up of a morass of programs. This...
Landlords of Last Resort: Should the Government Subsidize the Mortgages of Privately-Owned, Small Multifamily Buildings?, Western New England Law Review (2010)
The absence of stable financing options has long caused difficulties for owners of small multifamily...
Rating Agencies and Reputational Risk, Maryland J. Bus. & Tech. L. (2009)
This essay is a lightly-edited version of a talk given at the University of Maryland...
Contributions to Books
FOUNDATIONS OF FEDERAL HOUSING POLICY, COMMUNITY, HOME, AND IDENTITY (2011)
Federal housing policy is heavily funded and made up of a morass of programs. This...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Creatures of Regulatory Privilege, FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND MARKETS: CURRENT ISSUES IN FINANCIAL MARKETS (2010)
This book chapter addresses the appropriate role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-chartered,...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Privatizing Profit and Subsidizing Loss, Lessons from the Financial Crisis: Insights and Analysis from Today’s Leading Minds (2010)
This book chapter describes the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the ongoing...
Rating Agencies: Facilitators of Predatory Lending in the Subprime Market, from the Financial Crisis: Insights and Analysis from Today’s Leading Minds (2010)
This book chapter explores how the three largest rating agencies, Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investor...
Regulation of Subprime and Predatory Lending (forthcoming), The International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home (2010)
Popular Press
Abolish Fannie and Freddie, Aol News (2011)
When the Obama administration issues its report about the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie...
Unpublished Papers
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Future of Federal Housing Finance Policy: A Study of Regulatory Privilege, ExpressO (2009)
The federal government recently placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-chartered, privately owned mortgage...
The Role of the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Duopoly in the American Housing Market, Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance (2009)
Subprime Standardization: How Rating Agencies Allow Predatory Lending to Flourish in the Secondary Mortgage Market, ExpressO (2005)
Predatory lending, the origination of loans with abusive terms to homeowners, is rampant in the...
New Jersey’s Model Response to Predatory Lending, ExpressO (2003)
As widespread media coverage has documented, predatory home lending practices have become rampant throughout the...
Other
Book Review: Edward L. Glaeser, Triumph of The City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier (The Penguin Press 2011) (2012)
It is always a bit unnerving to read someone else’s love letters, but even more...
Learning from Financial History: An Academic Never Forgets (2011)
Those with short-term memories have been dominating our debate over the future of the Consumer...
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Future of Federal Housing Finance Policy: A Study of Regulatory Privilege (2011)
The federal government recently placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-chartered, privately owned mortgage...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Implications for Credit Unions (2011)
This research brief provides an overview of the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...
Book Review: The Subprime Virus: Reckless Credit, Regulatory Failure, and Next Steps (2011)
John Godfrey Saxe’s 19th century poem, “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” opens with six...