Fresh off his historic victory in New York City’s mayoral election, Zohran Mamdani has announced a transition team that has both experience and reformist intent. Among those joining him is Lina Khan , a legal scholar, Columbia Law School professor, and former chair of the United States Federal Trade Commission ( FTC ). Her inclusion marks a significant moment in the shaping of Mamdani’s administration, signalling an approach grounded in policy depth and structural understanding.
From antitrust reform to city governance
Lina Khan, 36, is best known for redefining antitrust discourse in the digital era. As FTC chair between 2021 and 2025, she became the youngest person to lead the agency. Her tenure was characterised by efforts to address the concentration of power in technology markets and to restore competition principles aligned with public interest.
Khan’s academic and regulatory background places her at the intersection of law, economics, and governance — an orientation that complements Mamdani’s promise of an administration “capable and compassionate.” Her appointment as co-chair of the transition team suggests an intent to bring evidence-based policymaking into the city’s reform agenda, especially as Mamdani faces the challenge of balancing affordability with economic vitality.
A transatlantic education in law and ideas
Born in London in 1989 to a British family of Pakistani origin, Khan moved to the United States at the age of 11. She attended public schools in Mamaroneck, New York, before earning a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Williams College, Massachusetts. During her undergraduate studies, she spent a year at Exeter College, Oxford, where she developed an interest in political theory and wrote her senior thesis on philosopher Hannah Arendt.
Khan went on to earn her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 2017. While there, she became widely recognised for her paper “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” published in the Yale Law Journal. The piece challenged prevailing interpretations of antitrust law and questioned whether traditional consumer-welfare frameworks could adequately address platform monopolies. It was described by The New York Times as “reframing decades of monopoly law,” and has since influenced both academic and policy debates.
From the classroom to Capitol Hill
Before her time at the FTC, Khan worked at the Open Markets Institute, where she researched corporate concentration and its implications for democracy and innovation. She later served as counsel to the United States House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, helping to lead a congressional investigation into digital platforms.
Her transition into academia came with a fellowship at Columbia Law School, where she became an associate professor in 2020. Her scholarship has continued to explore the structural dimensions of competition law, including the separation between platforms and commerce.
Bridging scholarship and civic reform
By joining Mamdani’s transition team, Khan moves from national regulatory reform to the sphere of city governance, a shift that underlines the growing overlap between urban policy and digital-era economics. For a mayor-elect who campaigned on free childcare, city-run grocery stores, and expanded public services, Khan’s expertise offers a framework for designing systems that are both equitable and efficient.
As New York City prepares for a new phase of leadership, the convergence of a democratic socialist mayor and one of America’s foremost legal thinkers may well redefine what policy innovation looks like in the country’s largest city.
Honored to share a few words this morning on Mayor-elect Mamdani’s victory. pic.twitter.com/y7EJE1dYjC
— Lina Khan (@linamkhan) November 6, 2025
From antitrust reform to city governance
Lina Khan, 36, is best known for redefining antitrust discourse in the digital era. As FTC chair between 2021 and 2025, she became the youngest person to lead the agency. Her tenure was characterised by efforts to address the concentration of power in technology markets and to restore competition principles aligned with public interest.
Khan’s academic and regulatory background places her at the intersection of law, economics, and governance — an orientation that complements Mamdani’s promise of an administration “capable and compassionate.” Her appointment as co-chair of the transition team suggests an intent to bring evidence-based policymaking into the city’s reform agenda, especially as Mamdani faces the challenge of balancing affordability with economic vitality.
A transatlantic education in law and ideas
Born in London in 1989 to a British family of Pakistani origin, Khan moved to the United States at the age of 11. She attended public schools in Mamaroneck, New York, before earning a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Williams College, Massachusetts. During her undergraduate studies, she spent a year at Exeter College, Oxford, where she developed an interest in political theory and wrote her senior thesis on philosopher Hannah Arendt.
Khan went on to earn her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 2017. While there, she became widely recognised for her paper “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” published in the Yale Law Journal. The piece challenged prevailing interpretations of antitrust law and questioned whether traditional consumer-welfare frameworks could adequately address platform monopolies. It was described by The New York Times as “reframing decades of monopoly law,” and has since influenced both academic and policy debates.
From the classroom to Capitol Hill
Before her time at the FTC, Khan worked at the Open Markets Institute, where she researched corporate concentration and its implications for democracy and innovation. She later served as counsel to the United States House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, helping to lead a congressional investigation into digital platforms.
Her transition into academia came with a fellowship at Columbia Law School, where she became an associate professor in 2020. Her scholarship has continued to explore the structural dimensions of competition law, including the separation between platforms and commerce.
Bridging scholarship and civic reform
By joining Mamdani’s transition team, Khan moves from national regulatory reform to the sphere of city governance, a shift that underlines the growing overlap between urban policy and digital-era economics. For a mayor-elect who campaigned on free childcare, city-run grocery stores, and expanded public services, Khan’s expertise offers a framework for designing systems that are both equitable and efficient.
As New York City prepares for a new phase of leadership, the convergence of a democratic socialist mayor and one of America’s foremost legal thinkers may well redefine what policy innovation looks like in the country’s largest city.
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