Envisioning a Nation-wide Right to Counsel in Eviction Courts: The Role of Law School Clinics

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Session Type: Concurrent Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Hotel: N/A

Room: Yosemite A

Floor: Ballroom Level

The right to counsel for tenants who face eviction is one of the greatest steps forward in access to justice in a generation. This is an exciting time of change and transition. In the five short years since NYC adopted the nation’s first RTC law, three states and fifteen other localities have adopted similar legislation. RTC presents the possibility not only of helping level the playing field in the eviction courts, but of shifting the balance of power and furthering the right to decent, affordable housing in stable communities. Law school clinics have a unique role to play in preparing law students with the skills, understanding of history and context and enthusiasm needed for careers in protecting and advancing housing rights - meaningful work that has enormous transformative potential.
Eviction and lack of counsel in eviction cases fall disproportionately on communities of color. Law school clinics also have a unique and critical role to play in connecting with and supporting community advocates and legal services providers as they campaign to establish RTC and a more fair and less racialized system of justice. This session will explore what law schools are doing and could be doing to support and further this important right.
Session participants can expect a high degree of interaction. Since every state and locality faces different challenges to effective implementation and/or adoption of the RTC, we expect that the facilitators’ role with be that of true facilitation: to encourage that all participants reflect and share with respect to their home jurisdiction’s successes or challenges. The use of breakout groups will ensure that there is active engagement with the session objectives.