Andrew Scherer
Professor of Law
Policy Director, Wilf Impact Center for Public Interest Law
Contact Information
T 212.431.2144
E andrew.scherer@nyls.edu
Faculty Assistant
Rosamond White
T 212.431.2127
E rosamond.white@nyls.edu
Education
New York University School of Law, J.D., 1978; University of Pennsylvania, B.A., 1972
Profile
Andrew Scherer is a Professor, the Policy Director of the Wilf Impact Center for Public Interest Law, the Director of the Right to Counsel Project, and the Co-Director of the Housing Justice Leadership Institute. Professor Scherer currently directs the Housing Rights Clinic. He has also taught courses in land use, housing policy and law, and planning law.
For many years, Professor Scherer has played a prominent role in access to justice, housing policy, landlord-tenant law, and other public interest issues—locally, nationally, and internationally. He has been an advocate for the right to counsel in civil matters, particularly eviction proceedings, for over 35 years. Under Professor Scherer’s direction, the Right to Counsel Project worked with the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition and others to pass legislation that established a right to counsel in eviction cases in 2017, making New York City the first jurisdiction in the United States to do so. Since 2017, at least 12 other localities and three states have established the right to counsel for tenants in eviction cases.
Earlier in his career, Professor Scherer spent 10 years as the Executive Director of Legal Services NYC (LS-NYC), the largest nonprofit exclusively devoted to providing civil legal services to low-income people in the United States, where he had worked in a variety of capacities for two decades. As Executive Director, he oversaw all aspects of the organization, including implementation of board policy, management, legal work supervision, and program development.
Professor Scherer is the author of the widely used treatise, Residential Landlord-Tenant Law in New York, published annually since 1996. He has also written numerous law review articles and other published works. Among many affiliations, Professor Scherer is a regular consultant to the federal Legal Services Corporation, the current Co-Chair of New York City Bar Association (NYCBA) Task Force on the Civil Right to Counsel, and a founding member of the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel. He has also been a Senior Fellow at the New York University Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, a Chair of the Executive Committee of the NYCBA, a member of the New York City Housing Court Advisory Council, and a consultant on housing rights to Displacement Solutions, an international nongovernmental organization.
Professor Scherer has taught at CUNY Law School; NYU Law School; Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; Yangon University in Myanmar; and Bennington College. He is a frequent consultant to the media and has lectured widely in the United States, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
Courses
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