Professor Deborah Kenn
Professor Kenn has directed the College of Law’s Community Development Law Clinic (f/k/a Housing and Finance Clinic) for 19 of the 20 years of its existence. Her teaching and work in the Community Development Law Clinic reflect her expertise in community economic development law, affordable housing development law, and public interest law. She also teaches the Not-for-Profit Corporations Law course. Professor Kenn researches, lectures, and publishes in the areas of public interest law, community development law, housing law, alternative forms of property ownership, and fair housing law. Before joining the faculty at Syracuse University College of Law in 1989, she practiced environmental law at a national not-for-profit corporation and housing law at Legal Services of Central New York. She has always been passionate about serving the underserved; creating and implementing systemic, sustainable solutions to the problems of poverty; and sparking law students’ passion for seeking true justice and fairness in the world.
Professor Kenn is a member of the ABA Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, a founding co-chair of its Practice Division on Legal Education; on the editorial board of the Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law; and a member of the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education. She is an Associate Director of the College of Law’s Center on Property, Citizenship, and Social Entrepreneurism.