Massachusetts Governor and former HLAB President Deval Patrick recently signed into law groundbreaking legislation originally drafted by several Bureau students. During an August 2010 ceremony, Governor Patrick was joined by HLAB Clinical Director and Professor of Law David Grossman and HLAB Clinical Instructor Pattie Whiting to mark the historic occasion.

The new law, “An Act to Stabilize Neighborhoods,” stands to be a very important tool in keeping people in their homes and protecting neighborhoods from falling into decay. The bill, passed unanimously by the Massachusetts legislature in late July, is the most comprehensive law in the country for protecting people living in foreclosed-on properties. HLAB students drafted what is considered the heart of the bill, a critically important “ just cause” section that prohibits banks from evicting tenants from foreclosed-on properties unless the tenant fails to pay rent, harms the property, or otherwise gives “ just cause” for eviction. It is believed to be the first “ just cause” law in the country pertaining specifically to tenants in foreclosed-on properties. In addition, the bill imposes a longer pre-foreclosure period on banks that don’ t make a good-faith attempt to restructure loans with homeowners, and it criminalizes mortgage fraud. It also provides property tax exemptions for purchasers of foreclosed properties.

“ It provides rights to tenants that no law in Massachusetts has for years,” said Grossman. “ It could solve the problem that’ s plagued our communities and cost us thousands of hours trying to solve in a less-efficient fashion, through litigating against banks in court.”

The law is important not just for tenants and homeowners but cities and towns seeking to avoid empty properties and families living on the street, notes Lee D. Goldstein, Clinical Instructor at HLAB, who worked with the students on drafting the legislation. Vacant properties attract vandalism and crime, decrease neighborhood property values, and reduce a solid tax base. So far in 2010, 7,431 homeowners in Massachusetts have lost their homes to foreclosure, according to the Boston Globe, marking a 56.7 percent increase over the same period last year.

The new legislation is part of a broad strategy – including targeted litigation, neighborhood outreach, and public protests – by students in HLAB, the WilmerHale Legal Services Center, and an affiliated HLS program, Project No One Leaves, which seeks to maintain Boston neighborhoods by keeping people in their homes despite foreclosure.

The original legislation was drafted almost three years ago by a group of four HLAB students working under Goldstein’ s supervision, with Tim Hoitink ’ 08 as the primary drafter. A number of community partners were instrumental in getting the law passed, including the Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending, a nonprofit coalition of about 40 groups from around the state that lobbied for the bill. Students did extensive research including analyzing comparable laws throughout the U.S. When an opponent suggested the proposed law was unconstitutional, students prepared lengthy analyses of its constitutionality, which were presented to legislators. Before reaching the Massachusetts legislature, the bill was filed as a home rule petition in a number of municipalities throughout the state, and was passed into law by Boston and a half-dozen other cities. Students testified on behalf of the bill before the Boston City Council.

About a dozen students worked on the project over the past three years as it was bottled up in committees, missed legislative voting deadlines, and then reintroduced last fall. Sponsored by Senator Susan C. Tucker (D-Andover), it is less broad than the bill originally drafted by the students, which would have extended “ just cause” protections to homeowners as well as tenants, allowing them to remain in a foreclosed-on property until it was resold as long as they paid rent to the bank. The students’ efforts had an impact in the national arena: one student, Marc Rotter ’ 09, pulled an all-nighter in the HLAB offices drafting a memo sent to U.S. Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) as the U.S. Congress considered a similar law, the Protecting Tenants Against Foreclosure Act, which passed last year.

“ This shows what clinical education is about – because it involved research, lobbying and advocacy – and it had a real effect,” says Goldstein.

Adds Grossman, “ This nearly three-year-long effort has not only taught the students who’ve worked on the bill how to draft legislation, but, maybe more importantly, it has given them a hands-on understanding of the complex process of getting legislation enacted, including all of the strategizing, collaborating, coalition-building and deal-making necessary for that to happen.”

The anti-foreclosure work of HLAB continues on many fronts. Other legislation includes requiring that banks go to court before foreclosing on a property. Currently, Massachusetts is among a minority of states that does not have judicial foreclosure