Photograph of Professor Susan Bennett

Susan Bennett

Professor of Law
Director of the Community & Economic Development Law Clinic

Office: Room 436
 Phone: 202-274-4149
E-mail: vCard


Susan Bennett is director of the Community and Economic Development Law Clinic and professor of law. She holds expertise in community economic development; nonprofit organizations; law, poverty, and the homeless; legal services for the poor; pro bono legal services; public interest law; federal housing law and programs. Bennett is the author of numerous articles, including “Embracing the Ill-Structured Problem in a Community Economic Development Clinic” in the Clinical Law Review; "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.

Professor Bennett is a member of the ABA's Commission on Homelessness and Poverty. She serves as vice chair of the Advisory Committee of the D.C. Bar’s Community Development Project, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Interpreter Bank Project of the District of Columbia’s Access to Justice Commission.



Areas of Specialization

  • Clinical Education
  • Community and Economic Development
  • Public Interest Law

Degrees & Universities

  • J.D., Columbia University School of Law 1979
  • M.A., Yale University 1975
  • A.B., Yale University 1973

  • Selected Publications

    • Susan Bennett, Constructing the Social Impact Statement to Measure the Full Cost to Public Housing Tenants of Urban Renewal, in Affordable Housing and Public-Private Partnerships, 129-167 (Nestor M. Davidson and Robin Paul Malloy eds., Ashgate Publishing 2009).

    • + More Publications...

    • Susan Bennett, Creating a Client Consortium: Building Social Capital, Bridging Structural Holes, 13 Clin. L. Rev. 45 (2006).
    • Susan Bennett, Embracing the Ill-Structured Problem in a Community Economic Development Clinic, 9 Clin. L. Rev. 45 (2002).
    • Susan Bennett, Little Engines That Could: Community Clients, Their Lawyers, and Training in the Arts of Democracy, 2002 Wis. L. Rev 469 (2002).
    • Susan Bennett, The Possibility of a Beloved Place: Residents and Placemaking in Public Housing Communities, 19 St. Louis U. Pub. L. Rev. 257 (2000) (reprinted in Representing the Poor and Homeless: Innovations in Advocacy 55, ABA Commission on Homelessness and Poverty (2001)).
    • Susan Bennett, On Long-Haul Lawyering, 25 Fordham Urb. L.J. 771 (1998).
    • Susan Bennett, No Relief But Upon the Terms of Coming Into the House: Controlled Spaces, Invisible Disentitlements, and Homelessness in an Urban Shelter System, 104 Yale L.J. 2157 (1995).
    • Susan Bennett, The Threat of the Wandering Poor: Welfare Parochialism and Its Impact on the Use of Housing Mobility as an Anti-Poverty Strategy, 22 Fordham Urb. L.J. 1207 (1995).
    • Susan Bennett & Kathleen Sullivan, Disentitling the Poor: Waivers and Welfare, 26 Mich. J. L. Reform 741 (1993).

  • + Selected Presentations

    • Susan Bennett, Panel Moderator, Foreclosing on the American Dream: The Housing Crisis and the Role of Lawyers and Laws in Securing Housing Justice (ABA Mid Year Meeting, Commission on Homelessness and Poverty, Bos. Mass., Feb. 13, 2009).
    • Susan Bennett, Panel Moderator and Program Chair, Privatization: Pitfall and Promise at the Intersection of Law, Markets and Poverty (Program of the Sec. on Poverty Law, Annual Meeting, AALS, San Diego, Cal, Jan. 9, 2009).
    • Susan Bennett, Co-Presenter and Team Member, Establishing and Enhancing Clinical Legal Education in China: Faculty Workshop Presented by American University Washington College of Law (Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, P.R. C., July 28- Aug., 2008).
    • Susan Bennett, Panel Moderator, Long Term Affordability in Home Ownership (ABA Forum on Affordable Hous. & Community Dev. L., D.C., May 22, 2008).
    • Susan Bennett, Presentation, Constructing the Social Impact Statement to Measure the Full Cost of Urban Renewal (Program on Affordable Housing and Public/Private Partnerships, University of Colorado Law School, Boulder, Colo., Oct. 19 - 20, 2007).
    • Susan Bennett, Presentation, Interviewing and Establishing the Client-Lawyer Relationship (D.C. Consortium of Legal Services Providers, New Lawyer Training, Wash., D.C., Oct. 4, 2007).
    • Susan Bennett, Presentation, Bellow Scholar Project Research Workshop (University of Maryland, School of Law, Balt., Md., Sept. 28, 2007).
    • Susan Bennett, Presentation, Faculty and Full Day Consultation on Developing Transactional Law Clinics (Wake Forest University Law School, Winston Salem, N.C., Sept. 20, 2007).
    • Susan Bennett, Co-Presenter & Team Member, Establishing and Enhancing Clinical Legal Education in China: Faculty Workshop Presented by Washington College of Law, American University (South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, P.R.C., July 16 - Aug. 3, 2007).
    • Susan Bennett, Commentator, Interschool Junior Faculty Workshop on Poverty Law (American University Washington College of Law, Wash., D.C., June 1, 2007).
    • Susan Bennett, Presentation, Affordable Housing Development for Persons with Limited English Proficiency (Annual Meeting, ABA Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, Wash., D.C., May 25, 2007).
    • Susan Bennett, Presentation, What is the Place of Poverty Law in the Law School Curriculum? (Fordham University Law School Symposium, N.Y.C., N.Y., Mar. 5, 2007).
    • Susan Bennett, Presentation, Janet R. Spragens Memorial Symposium: Low-Income Workers and the Federal Tax System (American University Washington College of Law, Wash., D.C., Feb. 23, 2007).
    • Susan Bennett, Presentation, Insuring Access to Housing for Persons with Limited English Proficiency (ABA Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, Program on Creating Healthy Communities: Ending Homelessness, St. Louis, Mo., Dec. 23, 2006).
    • Susan Bennett, Presenter & Co-Organizer, Project on Clinical Legal Education in China (Zhejiang Gonshang University School of Law, Hangzhou, P.R.C., Dec. 13 - 16, 2006).
    • Susan Bennett, Presentation, Symposium on Poverty Under International and Domestic Law: The Responsibility of Lawyers (American University Washington College of Law, Wash., D.C., Mar. 27, 2006).
    • Susan Bennett, Presentation, Law School Clinics and Training in Issues of Linguistic Diversity (District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission, Conference on Language Access, Wash., D.C., Nov. 2, 2005).
    • Susan Bennett, Presentation, The Community Lawyer: Enhancer of Social Capital, Manager of Structural Holes (Sixth International Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Lake Arrowhead, Cal., Oct. 30, 2005).
    • Susan Bennett, Presenter, Panel on Language Access (Mid-Atlantic Clinical Teachers’ Conference, Wash., D.C., Sept. 23, 2005).
    • Susan Bennett, Group Leader, Evaluating Students and Evaluating Outputs (AALS Annual Meeting, S.F., Cal., Jan. 6, 2005).