Michael Diamond

Associate Director, diamondm@law.georgetown.edu

BA, Syracuse University
JD, Fordham University
LLM, New York University

Michael Diamond is a Senior Academic and Policy Fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center where he is the Associate Director of Georgetown’s Harrison Institute for Public Law and directs its Housing and Community Development Clinic.  He also teaches Corporations and Property.  Professor Diamond taught at American University’s Washington College of Law and at Antioch University School of Law and Visited at several Law Schools.  He has taught Contracts, Business Associations, Property, Administrative Law, and seminars in Housing, Economic Development and Sociology of Law.  Professor Diamond has been of counsel to the law firms of Goldfarb & Singer and O’Toole, Rothwell, Nassau, and Steinbach.  He has been a consultant to the American Bar Association, the Central and Eastern European Law Initiative on proposed housing laws in Russia and Bosnia, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.   He has served on the District of Columbia Law Revision Commission and several advisory commissions on housing policy.  His books include:  Corporations: A Contemporary Approach, Carolina Academic Press (2004, with Mitchell), and How to Incorporate; A Guide for Entrepreneurs and Professionals, 5th Ed. John Wiley and Sons (forthcoming 2007).  His recent articles include: Community Lawyering: Revisiting the Old Neighborhood, Columbia Human Rights Law Review (2000); Leaders, Followers and Free Riders: The Community Lawyer’s Dilemma when Representing Non-Democratic Client Organizations, Fordham Urban Law Journal  (2004, with O’Toole); Community Economic Development: A Reflection on Community, Power and the Law, The Journal of Small and Emerging Business Law (2004).

Julie D. Lawton

Staff Attorney and Adjunct Professor, jdl38@law.georgetown.edu

BS, Magna Cum Laude, Florida A&M University
JD Cum Laude, Howard University School of Law
LLM, Georgetown University

Julie D. Lawton is an adjunct professor and staff attorney in the Harrison Institute for Public Law, Georgetown University Law Center.  She represents low-income tenant associations in purchasing, renovating and converting their multifamily housing into condominiums and cooperatives.  She also supervises clinical law students who work on these housing cases and supervised law students teaching entrepreneurial skills to new and potential small business owners.  The business topics included developing business plans, choice of business form, basic contract formation, licensing requirements, funding and accounting basics.  Finally, she teaches in the Housing and Community Development Seminar.  Ms. Lawton completed a Harrison Institute fellowship before starting her current position.  Before coming to Georgetown, she was an associate with Morrison & Foerster LLP in the Financial Services group in Washington, D.C. where she advised large financial institutions on consumer credit transactions and provided pro bono representation to small businesses and community development organizations.  Prior to her legal career, she worked in commercial banking for Bank of America.

Jennie O’Flanagan

Fellow, jo64@law.georgetown.edu

BA, Eckerd College
JD, Yale University
LLM Candidate Georgetown University

Jennie O’Flanagan is a clinical fellow with the Housing and Community Development Clinic at the Harrison Institute at Georgetown University Law Center.  She represents low-income tenant associations in purchasing, renovating and converting their multifamily housing into condominiums and cooperatives.  She also supervises clinical law students who work on these housing cases and teach entrepreneurial skills to new and potential small business owners.  The business topics include choice of business form, licensing requirements and financing basics, as well as financial literacy and negotiation skills.  Before coming to Georgetown, Ms. O’Flanagan was an associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering LLP, where she negotiated transactions for international and domestic corporations and joint ventures and advised companies on corporate governance matters.  Before that, she was a law clerk for federal District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, Southern District of Florida.

Eliza Platts-Mills

Fellow, etp4@law.georgetown.edu

BA, magna cum laude, Harvard College
JD, University of Virginia School of Law
LLM Candidate Georgetown University

Eliza Platts-Mills is a clinical fellow with the Housing and Community Development Clinic at the Harrison Institute at Georgetown University Law Center.  She represents low-income tenant associations in purchasing, renovating, and converting their multifamily housing into condominiums and cooperatives, and supervises clinical law students who work on these cases.  Prior to joining the Harrison Institute, Ms. Platts-Mills spent five years as a staff attorney with the Fair Housing Project at the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs.  In this capacity, she represented individuals and organizations bringing civil rights housing discrimination claims in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.  Her cases involved legal claims based on mental and physical disability, source of income, race, national origin, and familial status.  She is the co-author of “Discrimination Against Participants in the Housing Choice Voucher Program: An Enforcement Strategy,” Poverty & Race (published by the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, January/February 2006).

Elduise Johnson

Fellow, johnsoej@law.georgetown.edu

BA, Univerisity of Maryland at College Park
JD, Georgetown University Law Center
LLM Candidate Georgetown University

Elduise Johnson is a clinical fellow with the Housing and Community Development Clinic at the Harrison Institute at Georgetown University Law Center.  She represents low-income tenant associations in purchasing, renovating, and converting their multifamily housing into condominiums and cooperatives, and supervises clinical law students who work on these cases.  Prior to joining the Harrison Institute, Ms. Johnson represented individuals in residential real estate transactions as a solo practitioner in Chicago, Illinois.  Prior to that, she represented asset-based lenders as an associate at Goldberg, Kohn, et. al, a prominent Chicago-based law firm.  Prior to attending Georgetown for her law degree, Ms. Johnson worked at NationsBank (now Bank of America) as a commercial lender.  

Harrison Institute for Public Law
Georgetown University Law Center
111 F Street NW, Suite 102
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-662-9600
Fax: 202-662-9613
Email: see staff link above