David Zimmerman ’82 Reflects on Mentorship, Opportunity at 9th Annual Massry Lecture
ALBANY, N.Y. (Oct. 7, 2026) — David Zimmerman ’82 knew early that he wanted to go to law school. What he did not know when he arrived at the University at Albany was exactly how he would get there.
Zimmerman, now senior executive vice president and chief legal officer of the National Hockey League, returned to UAlbany on Friday, Oct. 2, to deliver the ninth annual Massry Lecture at the Massry School of Business, reflecting on the education, relationships and career guidance that helped shape the path he has followed since graduating in 1982.
When Zimmerman was deciding where to attend college, he knew he wanted a state school with a strong business program. His older sister, then a senior psychology major at UAlbany, also helped point him toward the University.
“For me it was an easy decision,” Zimmerman said. “I wanted a state school. UAlbany had the best business school. So this was my choice. Then I had to figure out what I was going to do.”
Once he arrived, Zimmerman found he fit right in.
“I had an extraordinarily good time here,” he said.
But enjoying college and knowing where he ultimately wanted to go were different from knowing how to build a career that would get him there.
One of the people who helped Zimmerman begin figuring that out was John Levato, a longtime Massry School of Business administrator, career adviser and mentor who spent more than 35 years at UAlbany.
Levato became a trusted resource for generations of business students and alumni, guided by a philosophy of putting students first. Massry’s John S. Levato Office of Career Services now bears his name.
For Zimmerman, Levato was someone who could help connect an ambition with a path forward.
With law school as his eventual goal, Zimmerman was advised to study accounting. After graduating from UAlbany with degrees in accounting and business administration, he worked for a New York City public accounting firm before earning his law degree from Boston University School of Law. He later practiced corporate and insolvency law at Proskauer Rose before joining the NHL in 1993.
Today, Zimmerman oversees the NHL’s Legal, Quality Control and Central Registry departments and advises the league on issues including collective bargaining, arbitration, ownership transactions, expansion, financing, employment and litigation.
His career has also given him opportunities to provide the kind of guidance he once received. Zimmerman conceived of the NHL’s Legal Clerkship Program, which gives recent law school graduates experience working with the league’s legal team while receiving professional mentorship. He also teaches “Sports and the Law” as an adjunct professor at Cardozo School of Law.
Looking back, Zimmerman told students he would have done even more to build those relationships while he was at UAlbany.
He said he would have become more involved outside the classroom and spent more time developing relationships with professors who could offer not only subject expertise, but perspective on graduate education, career choices and opportunities students may not yet know exist.
Watching his own son go through college has reinforced that lesson. Professors and mentors, Zimmerman said, can become people students turn to for advice while they are in school and continue to rely on as their education and careers progress.
That was the opportunity he encouraged today’s Massry students to recognize.
“Clearly I wasn’t that poised when I was their age,” Zimmerman said. “They are smart, engaged, active. They ask really good questions. … They are really great spokespeople for this institution. That’s the kind of students we have here.”
The annual Massry Lecture brings business leaders and UAlbany alumni to campus to share their experiences, career insights and advice with students.