Housing Law Clinic – 7246

Spring 2015
Dorinda Wider
Drew Schaffer

The Housing Law Clinic is a three-credit, one-semester clinic on landlord-tenant law, first offered in 1997. Students work under the supervision of Adjunct Professor and former Visiting Professor Larry McDonough, and Adjunct Professors Erik Williamsen and Drew Schaffer, both former Housing Clinic students and student directors. Each of these veteran housing attorneys in Legal Services programs in Minneapolis, Inc. work with student directors to supervise students in representing tenants facing eviction, housing repair problems, privacy violations, utility shutoff and lockouts in Hennepin County Housing Court.

The Housing Law Clinic also provides a unique opportunity to handle cases from beginning to end. Housing Court cases are very active cases which move faster than many other types of civil litigation. The Housing Law Clinic cases may include interviewing, investigation, drafting pleadings, discovery, motion and trial practice, and appeals. Often students obtain final decisions or settlements in cases which they started. Some of these decisions have helped to develop the common law of landlord and tenants in Minnesota! Some cases may involve the delicate act of advising a client that the client does not have a good case. Each student may handle 2-5 cases during the semester.