Faculty Directory & Profiles

John Whitlow is an instructor and supervising attorney in the Community Economic Development (CED) Clinic. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a supervising attorney at Make the Road New York (MRNY), where he headed up the organization's housing and public benefits legal services and worked on housing and criminal justice policy initiatives.

While at MRNY, he was a visiting professor in NYU Law School's Law, Organizing and Social Change Clinic, which was based on MRNY's model of combining law and community organizing. He has also worked as a senior staff attorney at the Urban Justice Center's Community Development Project (CDP) and as a staff attorney at Bedford-Stuyvesant Community Legal Services.

At CDP, he represented tenant associations in group litigation and provided transactional legal assistance to not-for-profit organizations and worker-owned cooperatives. He holds a BA from the Johns Hopkins University, an MA from the New School, and a JD from CUNY School of Law.

During law school, he worked at MFY Legal Services, Main Street Legal Services, and the National Employment Law Project. His research interests are focused on the ways in which community based organizations in New York City have used law reform strategies and campaigns to provoke progressive, redistributive policy changes - particularly in the area of housing. He is also interested in looking, comparatively, at the viability of worker-owned cooperatives as an alternative ownership and employment model.