Swarthmore College. Photo: Ugen64 at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parrish_Hall.jpg)
Swarthmore College. Photo: Ugen64 at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parrish_Hall.jpg)
Kristie S. Hassett was born on July 29, 1961, in Milford, Delaware, United States. Milford is a historic community in southern Delaware, situated along the Mispillion River and connected to the wider Delmarva region.
She later developed her professional life in the northeastern United States and Washington, D.C., where her legal practice included work involving communications companies and regulatory proceedings.
Hassett received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College in 1983 and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1986. Swarthmore College, founded in 1864 by members of the Religious Society of Friends, developed as a coeducational liberal-arts institution emphasizing rigorous inquiry and ethical reflection.
The University of Pennsylvania Law School, formally established in 1850, belongs to the American tradition of university-based legal education and combines professional training with legal scholarship and public service. Hassett's progression from a liberal-arts college to Penn's law school preceded her admission to several state bars and her work in communications law.
Hassett began practicing law after receiving her Juris Doctor in 1986. She was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1986, the New York bar in 1990, and the District of Columbia bar in 1993.
She worked at Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt, Maynard & Kristol, a firm with offices in New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. Her documented assignments included telecommunications regulatory matters, such as filings concerning telephone-service providers and transfers of control, and representation in litigation involving the Republic of Palau before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
In a 1992 appellate case, Hassett was identified as counsel in New York City for the Republic of Palau. In later regulatory proceedings, she represented telecommunications companies before state commissions, including matters involving authorization to resell telephone services and approval of corporate transactions. The work placed her within the communications-law field, where attorneys advise carriers and other communications businesses on licensing, regulatory approval, and related litigation.
Hassett represented the Republic of Palau in federal appellate litigation before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York v. Republic of Palau, decided in 1992.
Hassett represented telecommunications companies in state regulatory proceedings concerning telephone-service resale authority and corporate transfers, contributing legal counsel to the administration of communications regulation during the 1990s.
Hassett was a member of the American Bar Association and the Federal Communications Bar Association. The American Bar Association is the principal national professional organization for the American legal profession, while the Federal Communications Bar Association brings together lawyers and other professionals concerned with communications law and policy.
Hassett is married to economist Kevin Allen Hassett, who served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during the first Trump administration. They have two sons, John and James.
