Elliot Kaye ’04 has had a varied and illustrious career: former chair of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), senior vice president of policy at food relief nonprofit World Central Kitchen (WCK), and now partner at Cooley LLP. But after a kidney transplant during COVID, mostly he is glad, and even a little surprised to be alive.
A genetic disorder, first diagnosed when he was 21, led to a serious decline in kidney function over the years, until a transplant in 2022 saved his life. The donor was his son’s baseball coach, who volunteered for the operation after learning of his plight from an article in the Washington Post. Then, less than a year after joining WCK, and only months after the kidney transplant, Kaye grappled with mortality once again while working in war-ravaged Ukraine. These days, Kaye, as a partner in Cooley’s global product safety, compliance and litigation group in Washington, DC, is focused on assisting clients navigate the complex regulatory world of product safety and compliance. In a Q&A with NYU Law, he took time to reflect on his journey, starting with his time as a Congressional staffer before law school.
Tell us about your path to NYU Law.
I had been on Capitol Hill for almost a decade and I’d been chief of staff to two different members of Congress—but it would drive me crazy, because I would think that I would come up with a decent idea for something legislatively and in essence, I would be told, ‘Okay, the lawyers are going to take over now. Go play with that shiny thing in the corner.’ And then I remember being in committee with my boss at the time, [former Massachusetts Congressman] John Tierney, who was also an attorney. It seemed like magic back then, but he could just take out a piece of paper, write out a perfect amendment and hand it back to the clerk for the committee. And I said, ‘How can you do that?’ He quickly responded, ‘Uh, I went to law school—just like every other lawyer.’ I knew to add tangible and meaningful value in all aspects of my job, especially in public service, I needed a law degree.
How was your experience at NYU Law?
It was frightening in the sense that it had confirmed for me something I had always dreaded was the case, which was that I was just smart enough to know that I wasn’t that smart. When I got to NYU and realized the quality of the contributions in class, I was blown away. But being exposed to that level of intellectual engagement was just a tremendous, tremendous experience. My favorite professor was probably Rick Pildes. I took a voting rights class with him, and I later ended up on the Obama campaign running voter protection in Cuyahoga County, Ohio in 2008. I learned a ton in that class and from [Pildes] generally. I was in my 30s at NYU, and I really appreciated the expense of law school, so I was trying to get every last drop out of it. And I definitely did.
Looking back to your tenure at CPSC, what are you most proud of?
I’m so proud first and foremost that we ran a great agency. That’s really what it’s all about. Job one is, you must run a competent, professional operation—and boy, is that needed now. Not at CPSC [per se], but at all levels of government.
You also prioritized child safety issues at the agency. Why?
Because children can’t advocate for themselves, especially the youngest of children. And there are so many acute and chronic hazards they face, for instance chemical exposure. We get a lot out of chemicals that obviously serve a tremendous economic benefit and convenience benefit in society. In essence, we use our children as guinea pigs to determine, after decades of exposure, which chemicals are unsafe, and which aren’t. Those kinds of things drove me nuts.
Your term as CSPC chair ended sooner than planned, although you stayed on as a commissioner until 2020. What happened?
So in December 2016, the Obama White House called all of us—not just at CPSC, but the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, etc.— [who had] terms that extended past the Obama years. They asked us to stay and said to us, ‘You’re the last remains of our administration. The longer you stay, the longer you can protect the things that we all did.’ I felt a deep sense of obligation about that. And the history had been that my successors, whenever there had been a party switch, had often been able to continue for up to another year. I think it is safe to say that the differences between the administration that I served as chair in and the one that followed were a larger gap in terms of values. And so early on, opportunities presented themselves for a conflict between my values and the new White House.
That happened [in 2017] when the new White House issued an Executive Order (EO) that said for every one regulation that you announce, you must repeal two. Over my staff’s strenuous objections, which were understandable, I put out a statement saying, ‘That’s absurd.’ It was just bad policy, because why would we pit vulnerable populations against each other to decide which one’s regulations got to stay, and which ones had to go? I said no, in part because the CPSC is an independent agency not subject to the EO and in part because the EO was dangerous public policy. I was removed as chair maybe a few days later.
What was your reaction to that decision?
It certainly took a job away from me that I loved. But I also felt like nobody—none of us— [should hesitate] when that moment comes when pressed to decide how much do our values really matter and what costs we are willing to bear. I also knew that if I kept my mouth shut to keep my job, then I would keep doing it. But then what is the point? That is not why we are in these jobs.
Your kidney disease has been present throughout your life. When did you begin to feel the physical effects?
I knew at 21 that I had a genetic disease that would potentially lead to a transplant, based on my mom’s experience. At first, I did everything that I could try to avoid it with diet, exercise and drinking water all the time. I also entered clinical trials—starting at NYU Hospital. But the writing was on the wall. It was just a downward trajectory or a downward trend of eroding kidney function. Let’s put it this way, from 2016 until the transplant itself was a very difficult time.
And then an article in the Washington Post about your kidney ailment helped you find a donor.
I remember when I was at Georgetown [University Medical Center], they said, ‘You need a kidney. And so you can get on the list and be available for a deceased donor’s kidney, but that could take eight years and then you’ll be on dialysis.’ To avoid that, they said that my best chance is through a live donor. At the orientation, the medical team asked me, ‘What’s your comfort level talking about this?’ And I said, ‘Not very high.’ They told me, ‘Well, this is one time where you actually have to get over that.’
If I consider something like the kidney transplant, I wouldn’t have [survived] 100 years ago. And I have a tremendous amount of gratitude and appreciation to be alive now and to be able to benefit. Thankfully now I am in a really good place and thankfully about to travel a lot for work. I do have to take precautions that are frustrating, like masking indoors still. But [this is] the only way this works because I’m on lifelong immunosuppressants. The medications to suppress the immune system are required twice a day every day for life to prevent my body from rejecting the kidney. I think most people do not realize the forever immunosuppression aspect of it. It is not like a knee replacement for instance.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, you joined WCK in a newly crafted role as the senior vice president of policy. What led to your decision?
I just wanted to stay connected and help in any way that I could. The first activation that I traveled on was the racist shooting in East Buffalo. [Editor’s note: In May 2022, a white supremacist shooter killed 10 Black people in a Tops Friendly supermarket in Buffalo.] That WCK feeding site had really become the healing center for the community. And as great as Tops was, it was not a community store. It was in a sense, because of the culture of the community and [being a place] where people socialized. But it was not of the community. We ended up negotiating with New York state to keep community food options available until the Tops reopened by transitioning our feeding efforts over to local minority businesses who were able to keep meeting needs in a manner that worked for the community. That was a critical aspect of our transition out of East Buffalo.
Then your work with WCK took you to Ukraine in the summer of 2022. What was that experience like for you?
I don’t recommend trying to recover from a kidney transplant in a war zone, especially in bomb shelters. But putting aside my own situation because, frankly, it was just trivial compared with what the Ukrainians are going through, I would say it was the most frightening and the most inspirational thing I’ve ever done. There’s the personal peril of being in a war zone, wearing body armor, and traveling in armored vehicles, having personal security. But just like how the WWII generation is our “Greatest Generation,” this is Ukraine’s “Greatest Generation.” And I was able to see on the ground how the society had come together and what people were willing to do to stand up and defend themselves.
What are your future ambitions?
Honestly, I just want to stay alive and keep doing good in any role that I can. I feel like I was given a tremendous gift of a second life. And frankly, after Ukraine, probably a third chance of life.
Posted October 29, 2024. This interview has been condensed and edited.