Professor of Practice, Housing Rights Legal Clinic

 

Position Title & Department:

 Professor of Practice, Housing Rights Legal Clinic Posting #

5680

Department Description:

The USD Law Housing Rights Clinic, founded in 2022, provides low-income community members with assistance with housing instability and related issues. Unfortunately, the Housing Rights Clinic cannot assist community members with housing issues not listed below.

• Homelessness
• Eviction
• Foreclosure
• Threats to housing like uninhabitability and harassment

The Housing Rights Clinic provides students with opportunities to represent clients facing housing instability, including homelessness, eviction, foreclosure, and threats to housing like uninhabitability and harassment. Students will get hands-on experience interviewing clients, drafting pleadings, propounding and responding to discovery, motion practice, negotiation, and trial experience. Students will also have the opportunity to conduct outreach and education and help tenants organize and pursue their housing rights. The class will meet once a week as a group to learn about housing law and advocacy and to discuss case management and strategize on negotiation, litigation, and trial. The class meets a second time each week during set office hours to receive one-on-one training from the professor and litigation team on their caseload.

University Description:

The University of San Diego, an engaged and contemporary Catholic institution, was founded by the Diocese of San Diego and the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1949. Governed by an independent board of trustees since 1972, USD remains committed to a liberal arts education grounded in the Catholic intellectual tradition and the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty. Inspired by this centuries old tradition of Catholic higher education, the University welcomes people of all faith traditions and any, or no, religious background. The future success of USD relies on the contributions of those who seek to foster the development of engaged global citizens and an earnest confrontation of humanity’s urgent challenges.

Detailed Description:

The overall purpose of this Professor of Practice position is to provide direct client representation, case management, and legal intern supervision for the Housing Rights Legal Clinic (“HRLC”) of the University of San Diego Legal Clinics program (a working law office). The University of San Diego Legal Clinics program provides upper-division law students with the opportunity to use learned skills under the supervision of a practicing attorney while representing real clients. The Professor of Practice serves as the supervising attorney for the HRLC and shares responsibility with other clinic professors and staff for overall case management and risk management in the Legal Clinics. In addition to client representation and law student supervision, the Professor of Practice is also responsible for determining the course syllabus, assigning course materials, and providing weekly instruction to law students in a seminar-style class on relevant substantive law, procedure, and policy.

The HRLC is designed to address legal issues causing housing instability. The HRLC provides full-scope legal representation, including eviction defense and other tenants’ rights assistance in landlord-tenant disputes. The HRLC also provides legal services to enforce tenants’ rights, including habitability, anti-harassment, and retaliation laws; prevent unfair debt collection practices; and seek relief for wrongful evictions. In addition to eviction defense, the HRLC offers advice and consultation, mediation, training, renter education, and advocacy. Finally, the clinic seeks to increase affordable housing, ensure receipt of eligible income or benefits to improve housing stability, and render legal help for persons displaced because of domestic violence.

Duties and Responsibilities:

The responsibilities described here are representative of those that must be met by the employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

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