Professor of Law, Director of Community and Economic Development Clinic
Area of Expertise:
Community economic development; clinical lega education; nonprofit organizations; law, poverty, and the homeless; pro bono legal services; public interest law; federal housing law and programs
Additional Information:
Susan D. Bennett founded and directs the Community and Economic Development Law Clinic, through which students provide transactional representation to non –profit organizations, small businesses, and affordable housing cooperatives in under-served neighborhoods in D.C. and the metro area. She held the position of Director of Clinical Programs for the Washington College of Law from 2003 to 2006. In addition to her clinical teaching, she has taught first year Property, Law and Poverty and seminars on community development and law and homelessness. Before coming to WCL, she specialized in housing and consumer litigation at the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau.
Professor Bennett holds expertise in community economic development, nonprofit organizations, poverty law, civil legal services for poor people, public interest law, and federal housing law and programs. She received a Fulbright Senior Specialist award to consult during the summer of 2013 with the Facultad de Derecho of the Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago concerning the development of its small business clinic, the Clínica Jurídica en PYMES. Professor Bennett”s other leadership roles in the field of community development law include positions on the Advisory Board of the D.C. Bar’s Community Economic Development Project (Chair, 2011-2012, Vice Chair 2008-2011, Board member 2006-2012), and with the Legal Educators’ Division of the ABA Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law (Co-chair 2000-2002, 2015-2017.)
Professor Bennett is the author of numerous articles, including "On Long-Haul Lawyering," in the Fordham Urban Law Journal, and “No Relief But Upon the Terms of Coming Into the House: Controlled Spaces, Invisible Disentitlements, and Homelessness in an Urban Shelter System,” in the Yale Law Journal. She has published articles in the Clinical Law Review concerning ethics in community development practice and problem-solving in ill-structured community development settings. She co-authored the text, Community Economic Development Law: A Text for Engaged Learning. She has served as a member of the Editorial Board of the Clinical Law Review since 2016.
Professor Bennett is a member of the D.C. Bar’s Pro Bono Committee, the Advisory Board for the D.C. Interpreter Bank, and the steering committee of the D.C. Reduced Fee Lawyer and Mediator Referral Service (“DC Refers”). She co-chaired the D.C. Bar’s Section on Courts, Lawyers and the Administration of Justice from 2016-7 and served on its Steering Committee from 2014-2017. From 2007-2010 she served on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Homelessness and Poverty. Professor Bennett chaired the Section on Poverty Law of the Association of American Law Schools and acted as the Section’s Program Chair and Nominating Committee Coordinator. She served as member, secretary and co-chair of the board of directors of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.
Foreign Language Fluency:
n/a
Academic Credentials:
AB, MA, Yale University; JD, Columbia University School of Law
