Founded in 2012, the Urban Law Center at Fordham Law School seeks to investigate and improve the role of the law and legal systems in contemporary urbanism. It promotes an interdisciplinary understanding of the legal, governance, and regulatory aspects of urban environments by advancing collaborative research and scholarship, organizing local and global convenings, and supporting knowledge sharing, career pathways and pedagogy in the world of urban law. In particular, the Center’s efforts focus on forces that shape urban inequality and urban innovation, targeting the most pressing issues facing our nation’s cities and their metropolitan regions.
Welcome
The Local Solutions Support Center (LSSC) is a coordinating hub that provides local governments, elected officials and advocates with legal technical assistance and tools needed to defend local democracy and discourage the use of preemption that limits the ability of cities to protect people’s civil rights, solve problems, and improve lives​.
The documents posted on this site are intended to help scholars, attorneys, elected officials and advocates understand challenges posed by state interference in local lawmaking and local democracy.
The LSSC also supports grassroots organizing, research and communications, and education and outreach efforts aimed at raising awareness of preemption laws and their consequences for local communities.
The legal scholars, attorneys and advocates involved in the original LSSC effort includes:
• Ben Beach, Legal Director, The Partnership for Working Families
• Richard Briffault, Joseph P. Chamberlain Professor of Legislation, Columbia Law School
• Miya Saika Chen, Staff Attorney, The Partnership for Working Families
• Nestor M. Davidson, Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Faculty Co-Director, Fordham Urban Law Center, Fordham Law School
• Paul Diller, Professor of Law and Director of the Certificate Program in Law & Government, Willamette University College of Law
• Kim Haddow, Consultant to Rockefeller Family Fund
• Olati Johnson, Jerome B. Sherman Professor of Law and Vice-Dean for Intellectual Life, Columbia Law School
• Sherry Leiwant, Co-President, A Better Balance
• Jared Make, Senior Staff Attorney, A Better Balance
• Jennifer Pomeranz, JD, MPH, Assistant Professor and Interim Chair, Department of Public Health Policy and Management, College of Global Public Health, New York University
• Laurie Reynolds, Prentice H. Marshall Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois College of Law
• Richard Schragger, Perre Bowen Professor of Law and Joseph C. Carter, Jr. Research Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
The team also consisted of a dedicated group of law student research assistants from Berkeley Law School, Columbia Law School, Fordham Law School, University of Illinois College of Law, the University of Virginia School of Law, and Willamette University College of Law.