Pathway: Housing & Community Development Law

The Housing and Community Development Law Pathway is designed as a guided curriculum that will prepare you for a broad array of transactional legal work, including contracts, business formation, real estate and economic development, nonprofit law, environmental justice, zoning and land use planning, and intellectual property. It will also prepare you for advocacy and litigation for the preservation of affordable housing for low-income communities. Housing and community development lawyers work in many arenas, from government planning and economic development agencies to small community-based law firms and legal services organizations. Students who elect this pathway will hone their skills in legal research and writing, drafting, client counseling, and negotiation with multiple constituencies. In addition, students specializing in housing law will refine their trial advocacy skills.

Faculty Advisors

Professors Jerome Hughes and Saleema Snow

Curriculum

Stage 1: Foundational Courses

  • Administrative Law
  • Business Organizations REQ.
  • Civil Procedure I and II REQ.
  • Conflict of Laws
  • Contracts I and II REQ.
  • Evidence REQ.
  • Property REQ.
  • Remedies
  • Taxation I
  • Uniform Commercial Code I
  • Wills and Estates

Stage 2: Electives

  • Civil Rights in the 21st Century Seminar
  • Employment Discrimination Seminar
  • Gender & Sexual Orientation Under the Law Seminar
  • Housing Law Seminar
  • Labor & Employment Law
  • Negotiations
  • Non-Profit Law
  • Race and the Law Seminar
  • State and Local Government Law
  • System Change: Theory & Practice
  • Trial Advocacy

Stage 3: Experiential Opportunities

REQ. = Required course for all students | Course descriptions can be found in the Course Catalog

Community Service/Summer Fellowships/Externships

UDC Law has extensive connections with non-profit organizations and governmental agencies in the DC metropolitan region that provide students with the opportunity to spend a semester actually working in their chosen fields. The following are some examples of relevant placements students have obtained with outside organizations and agencies: