Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School and Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation are launching a new program to address the housing crisis this fall.
The AJMLS Landlord Tenant Hybrid Clinic aims to combine academic learning and real world law practice. Students will learn a specific subject and then apply it by assisting Atlanta residents in achieving better outcomes with landlord conflicts. The students will be supervised by a licensed attorney as they practice basic litigation skills like client interviews, document reviews, issue spotting, drafting pleadings, negotiation with adverse parties, and bench trial preparation.
Six inaugural students from the school will work with the foundation’s projects, the Safe and Stable Homes Project and the Stand with Our Neighbors Initiative, to help fight evictions and stabilize housing for families. The foundation strives to provide legal representation to low-income tenants to prevent illegal evictions and improve poor housing conditions.
“Thousands of Atlanta tenants have to tolerate unacceptable housing conditions and the looming threat of displacement,” said Michael Lucas, the foundation’s executive director. “Addressing this crisis requires developing alternative community-based approaches.”
The program will count for four credit hours in the fall and spring semesters and will be taught by attorney and professor Ayanna Jones-Lightsy, who also serves as co-director of the Safe and Stable Homes Project.
“I hope we can grow this mutually beneficial project so that more law students can have a deeper understanding of the barriers our clients face and how their assistance truly does make a difference,” said Professor Jones-Lightsy.
