Poverty and Housing Law Clinic

Clinical Teachers

Lawrence Wood

Project Goals

This clinic, conducted over two sequential quarters, exposes students to the practice of poverty law work by giving them the opportunity to work on housing related cases at the Legal Assistance Foundation (LAF), which provides free legal services to indigent clients in civil matters. Students will spend at least twelve hours per week in LAF's Housing Practice Group or in LAF's Consumer Practice Group (which handles bankruptcies and foreclosure defense).

Students may be asked to appear with tenants at administrative grievance hearings, represent defendants in eviction or foreclosure actions, file suit to enjoin landlords from performing lock-outs or refusing to make necessary repairs, participate in ongoing federal litigation, advocate on behalf of tenant groups, comment on proposed federal housing regulations, and file bankruptcy petitions on behalf of subsidized-housing residents who are trying to preserve their tenancies. All students will be expected to interview clients, prepare written discovery, and draft motions. Students with 711 licenses may be asked to appear in court at status hearings, conduct depositions, argue contested motions, negotiate with opposing counsel, and participate in bench or jury trials.

In addition to working at LAFMC, students will attend a weekly two-hour class at which they will learn about poverty law, public housing, the Section 8 tenant-based and project-based rental assistance programs, the landlord-tenant relationship, eviction actions, jury trial practice, housing discrimination, foreclosure defense, and the extensive and often misunderstood connection between criminal law and subsidized housing. Enrollment is limited to twelve students. The seminar is taught by Lawrence Wood (Director, LAF's Housing Practice Group). Each student's grade is based on his or her class participation (20%), one paper-l0 pages minimum (10%), and work at LAFMC (70%).

Contact: (773) 702-9611