Page 14 - University of Baltimore Law - Fall 2019

Senior Staff Help Maintain
Machinery of Government
While elected officials of necessity operate in the public eye, it’s the senior staff
who keep the machinery of government running behind the scenes. These four alumni use their legal education and passion for public service as top-level officials in state and county government.
YAAKOV “JAKE” WEISSMANN,
J.D. ’16, always wanted to help people, so he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work. But after working on two political campaigns, he soon came to believe that “politics is the best way to help a large number of people on a day- to-day basis.”
As chief of staff to Senate President Mike Miller (at left in photo above),
for whom he has worked for a decade, Weissmann points to legislative achievements in the 2019 General Assembly as examples: a $1 billion increase in school funding, an increase in the minimum wage, and commitments to set renewable energy targets.
Weissmann, 34, says his legal education gives him “a better understanding of how people line up on sides of an issue.” Even something as simple as being able to make sense of court cases and statutes is valuable, he adds. “Then there’s the gravitas factor. People do look at you differently with a legal education than without one.”
Going to UB Law was “the most academically challenging thing I ever did,” he says, “and I made some really great friends.”
While on the national level politics
is often bitterly partisan and divisive,
in Maryland politics that is much less
of an issue, he says. “I think people
have an assumption that it’s knives out, Republicans vs. Democrats. ... It’s really nice that in the legislature, Democrats and Republicans work really well together.
“The best part is that I genuinely
admire the work that they do,”
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“I looked out the courthouse window Monday morning and here’s Dutch in a wheelchair rolling over the curb, and he’s got Judge Proctor’s cleaning hanging from an IV hook,” says Becker with a chuckle.
“Dutch is very persistent in the best sense of the word,” says Becker, adding that the clerkship was formative. “Judge Proctor had a lot of rectitude and I think Dutch picked up on that. ... While [Dutch] is a sociable people person, he has a lot of honesty and integrity and courage to stand up for others.”
“I like action, and I really don’t like bullies and people who take advantage
of others,” says Ruppersberger. That drive led him to form an investigative division as an assistant state’s attorney, and it was while investigating a drug trafficking case that he was involved in the life-changing car accident. After his recovery, he says, “I did well for a couple of years in law, but I wasn’t happy, I needed more action.” Politics proved a natural outlet for his competitive spirit, his energy and his love of people.
On the national stage, Ruppersberger has a reputation as a consensus builder, which was underscored by his work on the House Intelligence Committee.
“Even in that day and age, it was hard to develop a personal friendship the way Dutch and I have in a political environment,” says former Republican Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan. Rogers became Intelligence Committee chair when Ruppersberger was the ranking member. “That happened not because we always agreed, but because we came to a mutual point of respect that we were doing what we did because we believed in the national security interests of the United States.”
PHOTO BY RICH RIGGINS