The Community & Economic Development Clinic alum steps into a key role at a moment of change in the city’s approach to economic policy.
Kenny Minaya ’12 has built his career at the intersection of law, government, and community-based economic justice. A longtime public servant in New York City, he has worked across legal services, advocacy organizations, and city government to address the structural barriers facing working-class and immigrant communities, from housing instability to the regulatory systems that shape how small businesses operate and grow. Most recently, he served in senior leadership at the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, overseeing agency operations and advancing policy affecting workers and entrepreneurs across the five boroughs.
His March appointment by Mayor Zohran Mamdani as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services places him at the center of the city’s economic infrastructure. The agency supports entrepreneurs in starting and sustaining businesses, connects New Yorkers to workforce opportunities, and shapes the regulatory environment governing neighborhood commerce. His appointment comes at a moment when New York City is reorienting its economic policy toward access and equity, with a focus on reducing barriers for small businesses and aligning economic growth with the realities of working communities.
The Commissioner recently came to CUNY Law to meet with students as part of an NYC government careers panel.. We spoke with him about his path from CUNY Law to legal services to city government, how he approaches economic justice in practice, and how his time at CUNY Law continues to shape his work.
You grew seeing your parents run their own small business and navigating the city’s licensing systems firsthand. How did those experiences shape how you think about law and government’s role in supporting economic justice and communities?
Like so many children of immigrants not just in New York City but around the country, my sister and I watched my parents work hard to own and run a small business, and give us a better life than they had. And while my parents ran their business—a bakery that became a linchpin of the community—they also instilled in me a strong sense of justice, and of right and wrong.
It’s part of why I have always been service-oriented, and CUNY Law’s motto has always resonated with me; “Law in the Service of Human Needs” just makes sense. I didn’t want to just be out there using my law degree to improve my economic situation, I wanted to have an impact.
I also remember that my parents, like so many others, felt there was no choice but to hire someone to help them navigate New York City government. It’s hard enough to run a business, especially as so many entrepreneurs are solopreneurs. For them, going downtown to sit through adjudication with the city over a fine or fee isn’t an option because they’re workers too.
Seeing this firsthand while growing up made me realize that we as a city can make things more accessible—and meet people where they are. That experience not only informed how I think about law and government, but about the practical application of laws and rules. That’s why policymaking should always include the input and voice of people in the community—the people most affected by the law. It shaped my values about lawmaking and policymaking: that we must do so with great humility.
Your career has touched so many areas of public interest law. How did your time at CUNY Law shape your approach to using law and policy to support working communities?
One of the best things about CUNY Law is that it provides very clear level-setting from the start: if you’re at CUNY Law to become a public interest lawyer, you’re going to be working with some of the most disadvantaged people out there – the ones left behind. You’ll have to work twice as hard and be twice as creative. As a law student, that gave me a foundational understanding of the powerful tool the law can be. To the untrained eye the law appears to be rigid, but at CUNY we learn how to make it malleable to serve our clients’ needs.
Many CUNY Law graduates pursue public service roles in New York City. How has your legal training informed the way you approach policy and leadership in city government?
As a housing attorney, I saw the practical application of the law and how it affects everyone. It’s the kind of work that I cannot recommend enough, and it allows for some of the most eye-opening experiences a young legal professional can encounter. You get to meet folks who live very different lives compared to yours. You see so many types of lived experiences that you may not even have considered could exist. It broadens your scope.
CUNY Law allows you to approach the legal system through the lens of economic justice, and that allows you to see the possibilities of applying those ideals elsewhere, and in places you never thought possible. Those possibilities become even more real because New York City itself is an incubator for new and creative public policy and ideas. By experiencing how the law affects people firsthand, it makes you more effective when seeking to both make and change policy; in a sense, my experience in public interest law has made me more compassionate and understanding.
What advice would you offer current CUNY Law students who want to use their legal education to shape economic and community justice in the city?
At least once in your life you should work for a free legal services organization or nonprofit. You should know what it feels like to work with someone in crisis—whether it’s someone at risk of losing their home, their child, or even their freedom. The limited resources these nonprofits often have will make you more tactful, nimble, resourceful, and effective.
And if you decide that you want to be a policymaker, you will be better for it because you have direct experience with how the law impacts people— particularly the unintended circumstances.
CUNY Law’s experiential approach to learning gives students hands-on exploration and exposure long before graduation but particularly through our clinics. How did your work in our Community & Economic Development (CED) Clinic shape your approach to your work?
I didn’t know it at the time, but the CED clinic set the foundation for the path I am on today. I was connected to Make the Road NY through the CED clinic. One of my projects was to help develop a compliance checklist of Health Department regulations for small restaurant owners in Jackson Heights, Queens. That experience not only reminded me of my own experience with my parents and their bakery, but really opened my eyes about how many rules and regulations our city’s entrepreneurs face and measures the city could take to be more transparent. This project ultimately informed my future roles at both the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and now at Small Business Services.
The CED clinic was also where I was first introduced to landlord-tenant law in NYC which inspired me to become a housing attorney. I was also connected to Catholic Migration Services through the CED clinic, which led directly to my time working with tenants in Western Queens and Bushwick, Brooklyn.