Urban Development Law Clinic
The Urban Development Law Clinic (UDLC) offers students the opportunity to practice law by providing legal services to a variety of neighborhood based nonprofit corporations involved in community economic development, producing and managing affordable housing, and other matters important to inner-city neighborhoods and their residents.
Clinic students work on real-world legal and corporate governance issues under the direction of the Clinic's staff attorneys. Recent projects include the following:
- UDLC assisted a client in acquiring environmentally contaminated land for clean-up and reutilization in conjunction with the development of a new facility for the County’s Juvenile Court.
- UDLC frequently provides legal guidance and information to our clients and others on the formation of legal entities and on compliance with requirements for tax exempt entities under the Internal Revenue Code. It also advises clients on best practices and policies for small nonprofit organizations.
- UDLC is part of a multi-disciplinary team that working in seven Cleveland neighborhoods to investigate the physical and legal condition of abandoned properties in order to develop and implement plans for repair or removal of blighted structures and the productive reuse of unproductive properties.
- UDLC is litigating public nuisance abatement cases against the owners of distressed and abandoned residential properties in a major project to remove blighted structures from neighborhoods and reutilize unproductive land. UDLC's clients are frequently appointed receivers by the Housing Court to take control of dangerous properties and abate the nuisances by either rehabilitation or demolition. The Clinic has brought nearly 30 cases to date -- most of the cases filed in the Cleveland Housing Court to abate residential nuisances.
- UDLC provided counsel and drafted the documents to enable six households of elderly persons to convert an apartment building to a condominium. It also formed a new nonprofit corporation for operation of the condo.
- UDLC has provided research and consultation on legislative initiatives needed by municipalities and nonprofit developers to deal with the consequences of the rapid rise in mortgage failures and foreclosures.
- UDLC conducts workshops for staff and boards of nonprofit development corporations on various issues, such as personnel management, legal issues for directors, risk management, and Ohio's charitable solicitation law. It has designed and assisted in providing a Continuing Legal Education course for attorneys on Ohio’s Residential Nuisance Abatement Statute. It has drafted corporate by-laws, personnel manuals, residential leases, joint venture agreements and other business documents.
UDLC students typically engage in the following activities:
- legal and historical research;
- consultation with clients and their constituencies;
- drafting of legal memoranda and correspondence;
- participation in nuisance abatement by receiver cases;
- analysis of legal and nonprofit governance issues; and
- planning and organization of presentations that address these issues.
UDLC students attend weekly clinic meetings resembling law firm meetings where student practitioners discuss their current assignments and plan for future work with the UDLC staff. In addition, students receive instruction in a broad range of substantive subjects and develop skills such as professional accountability; client interviewing and counseling; public speaking; legal analysis, research and writing.
Training and supervision in the UDLC is provided primarily by Clinical Professors, Kermit Lind and Pamela Daiker-Middaugh, Staff Attorney, Carole Heyward, with assistance provided as needed by Clinic Director, Professor Alan Weinstein.
Enrollment in the CAC is limited to 12-14 students per semester, at the discretion of the instructors, and is open to students who have completed the required core curriculum. Students are expected to enroll in the Clinic for a minimum of five credit hours over two semesters. Students may also take the Clinic a third semester with approval of the staff.
Registration and Further Information
To register for or learn more about the UDLC, contact either Professor Kermit Lind at extension 5506 or by e-mail at kermit.lind@law.csuohio.edu or Staff Attorney Carole Heyward at extension 5508 or by e-mail at carole.heyward@law.csuohio.edu