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.
Jerry Dickinson, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Professor Dickinson's teaching and scholarship focus on constitutional property, state and local government law, land use, affordable housing law and policy and urban development.
Professor Dickinson practiced with the Real Estate Group at Reed Smith LLP (Pittsburgh), where he concentrated on all aspects of real estate development and litigation, specifically focusing on land use, zoning, economic development, landlord-tenant and eminent domain. While at the firm, he founded and coordinated the Reed Smith Housing Rights Project, a pro bono initiative advocating on behalf of indigent tenants in eviction proceedings in Allegheny County in collaboration with the Neighborhood Legal Services Association.
Professor Dickinson clerked for the Honorable Theodore A. McKee, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia.
Professor Dickinson is also a former Fulbright Scholar to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he conducted a comprehensive project on urban development and housing at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies and the University of the Witwatersrand School of Law
