Jeff Leslie | University of Chicago Law School

Biography

Jeff Leslie graduated from both Yale College and Yale Law School. He clerked for Judge Joel M. Flaum of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Before joining the Law School, he was an Assistant Corporation Counsel in the City of Chicago Department of Law, where he worked on affordable housing and economic development transactions. He is the Paul J. Tierney Director of the Housing Initiative Clinic, representing community-based affordable housing developers, and teaches courses in commercial real estate, affordable housing law and policy, negotiations, and transactional lawyering skills. He currently serves as the Faculty Director of Curriculum and as Director of Clinical and Experiential Learning.

Education and Experience

Education

Yale Law School

Notes editor, Yale Law Journal
Articles Selection Committee, Yale Law and Policy Review
Student Director, Housing & Community Development Clinic
Margaret Gruter Prize for best paper on law and ethology, biology, and related behavioral sciences

Yale University

BA, Philosophy

Magna cum laude
Distinction in the major of philosophy

Experience

The University of Chicago Law School

Director of Clinical and Experiential Learning, 2013-present
Paul J. Tierney Director, Housing Initiative, 2008-present
Clinical Professor of Law, 2008-present
Faculty Director of Curriculum, 2008-present
Co-Director of the Kreisman Initiative on Housing Law and Policy, 206-2019
Acting Associate Dean for Clinical and Experiential Learning, 2011-2013
Associate Clinical Professor of Law, 2005-2008
Director, Chicago Project on Animal Treatment Principles, 2004-2007
Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, 2002-2005

City of Chicago Department of Law

Assistant Corporation Counsel, Finance and Economic Development Division, 1998-2002

Judge Joel M. Flaum, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Judicial Clerk, 1997-1998

American Medical Association

Research Assistant in Medical Ethics & Health Policy, Chicago, IL, 1992-1994

Presentations

Presenter, Reassessing Re–urbanization: Affordable Housing Crises, Law of the Land, University of Chicago Law School, February 2021
Presenter, Center for Shared Ownership Community Forum: Beauty & The Beast, How your declarations and by-Laws are the guard rails to a strong relationship with your professional contractors. With Caelin Miltko, October 2020
Moderator, Community Development Panel, Kreisman Initiative Fellows Lunch Series, Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, November 2018
Panelist, “Building Wealth and Preserving Long-Term Housing Affordability”, CITI and LISC-Chicago, Community Conversations Series, September 2018
Ethical Considerations in Negotiations, presentation with Joe Seiler, Corporate & Securities Partner and General Counsel of Drinker Biddle & Reath, Conference on the Anatomy of a Deal, Association of Corporate Counsel, June 2018
Panelist, “Segregation, Opportunity and Affordable Housing: The Low Income Housing Tax Credit,” Kreisman Initiative on Housing Law and Policy, February 2018
Moderator and Break Out Session Leader, “Improving Access to Homeownership and Affordable Housing,” Urban America Forward Conference, University of Chicago Office of Civic Engagement and Harris School of Public Policy, October 2017
Helping Clients Use Data to Make Business Decisions and Inform Public Policy: A Case Study of Community Land Trusts, presentation to 2017 Transactional Clinical Conference, June 2017 (with James Kelly and Eliza Platts-Mills)
Moderator, “Place-Based Redevelopment Strategies: The Case of the Reclaiming Southwest Chicago Campaign”, Kreisman Initiative on Housing Law and Policy, April 2017
Panelist, The Problem with Pro Bono, Federalist Society of the University of Chicago Law School, January 2017
Clinic Design at the University of Chicago Law School, presentation to Conference on Benefits and Risks of Legal Clinics, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, December 2016
Moderator, panel on History and Home, Kreisman Initiative on Housing Law and Policy Conference on Evidence and Innovation in Housing Law and Policy, June 2016
Moderator, panel on Strategies for neighborhood-Based Development: The Case of Woodlawn, sponsored by Kreisman Initiative on Housing Law and Policy, May 2016
Use of Case Rounds, presentation to 15th Annual Transactional Clinical Conference, April 2016
Structuring of the Deal - Affordable Housing Development, presentation to 15th Annual Transactional Clinical Conference, April 2016
Panelist, Will the Supreme Court Make Disparate Impact Disappear? sponsored by American Civil Liberties Union student organization, American Constitution Society student organization, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, and Black Law Students Association, 2015
Clinical Skills Series -- Structuring Deals, University of Chicago Law School, 2015
Panelist, Balancing Act: Urban Development and Gentrification's Impact on Law Income Housing, sponsored by Kreisman Initiative on Housing Law and Policy, Public Interest Law Society, and Law of the Land, 2014
Negotiation Strategies, presentation to Environmental Defense Fund Annual Retreat, 2014
Counseling Clients on Settlement, presentation to Chicago Bar Association, Legal Aid Academy series, 2013 (with Randy Schmidt)
Moderator, panel on Development of South Works/US Steel Site, sponsored by Law of the Land, 2013
Interdisciplinary Clinical Pedagogical Approach: Creating Lawyers as Problem Solvers, 12th Annual Transactional Clinical Conference, University of Texas Law School, 2013 (with Praveen Kosuri, Ashlyn Lembree, and Art Neil)
Fiduciary and Legal Responsibilities of Non-profit Board Members, Civic Knowledge Project/Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies - Southside Arts & Humanities Network, University of Chicago, 2012, 2011 (with Elizabeth Kregor)
Public Housing in Chicago, University of Chicago Campus Chapter of Habitat for Humanity, 2011
How Multiple Cooks Make Broth – Decision-making and Organizational Clients, Association of American Law Schools Conference on Clinical Legal Education, 2011 (with Susan Bennett and Praveen Kosuri)
Negotiations Workshop, Chicago Careers in Law Series, 2011 (with Randy Schmidt)
Introduction to Affordable Housing, John Marshall Law School, 2010
Introduction to Negotiations, City of Chicago Department of Law, 2009
Moderator, panel on Signature and Shadow Pedagogies: Coexistence or Collaboration?, in Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic 50th Anniversary Symposium – Out of the Shadow: Clinical Legal Education, 2008
Illinois Federally Assisted Housing Preservation Act – An Overview, Chicago Rehab Network and Woodlawn East Community and Neighbors’ Consumer Rights and Responsibilities Workshop for Renters, Chicago, Illinois, 2008
Affordable Housing Development Process, Housing Initiative’s Workshop on Housing and Prisoner Reentry, 2007
Illinois Federally Assisted Housing Preservation Act – An Overview, Chicago Rehab Network Preservation Summit, 2006
Panelist, Animal Agriculture and the Law, Duke University Animal Law Conference, 2006
Moderator, panel on Defining Legal Life: Animal Rights, University of Chicago Legal Forum Symposium, Life and Law: Definitions and Decisionmaking, 2005
Public Housing in Chicago: Lessons from Cabrini Green, Student Tenant Organizing Project/Southside Network, 2005
'Filling out Forms and Killing Deals’ – What Do Transactional Lawyers Really Do?, Midwest Clinical Teachers Conference, October 2004 (with Elizabeth Milnikel)
Affordable Condominiums, Real Estate Section of the Chicago Bar Association, November 2003

Additional Activities

Memberships and Professional Affiliations

American Bar Association Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development
Association of American Law Schools Committee on Clinical Legal Education (2016-2018)
Catalyst Grant Selection Committee, University of Chicago Office of Civic Engagement
Advisory Board Member, Community Accelerator Project, University of Chicago
Advisory Board Member, Civic Leadership Academy, University of Chicago