Law School Students Seek to Aid Landlords

After an unsuccessful attempt to gain official recognition from the Law School's clinical program, a group of Harvard law students is planning a pilot program to represent landlords before the city's rent control board without University affiliation, the group's president said this week.

Starting this spring, members of the Small Property Owners Coalition (SPOC) will begin defending landlords who are attempting either to evict tenants or to remove their buildings from the city's rent control system, said Joel C. Delman, the third-year law student who heads the group.

But because of a lack of law School resources and a potential conflict of interest with another student organization, the new group will not be able to join the school's clinical program, Director of Clinical Programs Daniel L. Greenberg said yesterday.

"There are not resources within the clinicalprogram to create another student practiceorganization," Greenberg said.

In addition, because an existing clinicalprogram, Students for Public Interest Law (SPIL),represents tenants before the rent control boardthe new group probably cannot be part or the LawSchool's clinical program, Greenberg said.

"It creates real ethical issues to have twogroups responding to the same question dependingon the same funding source," Greenberg said.

As a result, SPOC will not be allowed todescribe itself as a Law School affiliate and willreceive no procedural supervision from the school,Greenberg said. In addition, he said, the groupwill receive only minimal financial assistancefrom the Law School.

Delman said that the new group's future hasbeen uncertain since its inception this fall."We've been fighting an uphill battle for a longtime" to get an official go-ahead from the LawSchool, he said.

But Delman said that SPOC has found a volunteerattorney to supervise the program, and willproceed in cooperation with some Cambridge groupsand small property owners. "It is important toemphasize that SPOC is a community effort, not aclinical program like SPIL," he said.

The group, which currently has about 10members, also plans to extablish an office andhold a recruitment drive next fall, Delman said.

The group still needs approval from the EthicsCommittee of the Massachusetts Bar Associationbefore it can begin operations. The group plans tosubmit a propposal this week, Delman said, addingthat he anticipates no objections.

"I hope the Bar Association will look on thisas an effort to provide equal representation whereit's sorely needed," Delman said, although headmitted that "in a very technical sense I supposethere could be a technical conflict of interest."

However, Law School Dean of Students Sarah Waldsaid that "there's some question whether oneentity, that is Harvard Law School, couldrepresent both sides of an issue."

Small property owners in Cambridge have longcontended that the city's rent control systemdiscriminates against them in favor of tenants.Last Year, members of the Cambridge Small PropertyOwners Association (SPOA), sharply criticized SPILfor representing tenants exclusively, arguing thatmany land-lords cannot afford legal representationthey need.

According to John Natale, a member of ASPOA'ssteering committee, which is collaborating withSPOC, tenants are commonly perceived as "indigent,put-upon, defenseless, and owners are theconverse."

"That's not at all reality," Natale said."We're very pleased that [SPOC] is going tohappen. It's something we've been lobbying for fora number of years."

Delman said that while tenants have access to anumber of help groups, including the Students forPublic Interest Law, "[owners] are completelyneglected in Cambridge in terms of legalrepresentation."

But former city councillor David E. Sullivan,the architect of several key city rent controllaws, said that tenants usually have moredifficulty finding legal representation thanowners.

In general "owners have the most experiencedcounsel," Sullivan said. "Typically, the movingparty is the owner, and the tenant is on thedefensive."

Robert O. Edbrooke of the, Cambridge TenantsUnion said that although he has no objection tothe formation of SPOC, "there's more need on thetenants' side."

"In my experience tenants have been wellrepresented," Edbrooke said. "There are some smallproperty owners who...say they can't affordrepresentation, and if a group of Harvard lawstudents wants to help them out that's fine withme."

A SPIL spokesperson declined to comment Sundayon the new group's formation.Crimson File PhotoDAVID E. SULLIVAN