University of Wisconsin-Madison

Law Professor, Frederick W. and Vi Miller Chair in Law

Thomas worked at University of Wisconsin-Madison as a Law Professor, Frederick W. and Vi Miller Chair in Law

Texas A&M University

Professor of Law at Texas A&M University School of Law

I also served as interim Dean of Texas A&M School of Law in the 2017-2018 academic year.

The Hastie Fellowship Program at Forty: Still Creating Minority Law Professors

Wisconsin Law Review

This article provides a history of and information about the structure of the William H. Hastie Fellowship Program at the University of Wisconsin Law School. This article is part of a series of articles published by the Wisconsin Law Review commemorating Professor James E. Jones Jr., emeritus professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and the founder of the Hastie Fellowship Program. Forty years after this pioneering program was established, the Hastie Fellowship Program continues to represent the preeminent pipeline program that has enabled more than 30 minority lawyers to become tenure-track law professors at law schools throughout the United States. The program continues to develop minority law graduates with the potential to serve as very productive tenure-track law professors into very attractive law faculty candidates. The Article notes that those who have administered the program over the years have always have believed that those with the potential to serve as law professors exist in many places. To this end, though the Hastie Fellowship Program has had its share of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley, and UCLA, it also has had a number of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Howard, Loyola University New Orleans, the University of Tulsa, Northeastern, North Carolina Central University, and Rutgers-Camden. Not only does the Hastie Fellowship Program continue to place its Fellows on law faculties throughout the country, but also many of the alumni from the program have had stellar, even pioneering, careers. These include former Fellows Daniel Bernstine and Stacy Leeds who became law school deans and Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, a nationally and internationally known law professor and public intellectual.

The Hastie Fellowship Program at Forty: Still Creating Minority Law Professors

Wisconsin Law Review

This article provides a history of and information about the structure of the William H. Hastie Fellowship Program at the University of Wisconsin Law School. This article is part of a series of articles published by the Wisconsin Law Review commemorating Professor James E. Jones Jr., emeritus professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and the founder of the Hastie Fellowship Program. Forty years after this pioneering program was established, the Hastie Fellowship Program continues to represent the preeminent pipeline program that has enabled more than 30 minority lawyers to become tenure-track law professors at law schools throughout the United States. The program continues to develop minority law graduates with the potential to serve as very productive tenure-track law professors into very attractive law faculty candidates. The Article notes that those who have administered the program over the years have always have believed that those with the potential to serve as law professors exist in many places. To this end, though the Hastie Fellowship Program has had its share of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley, and UCLA, it also has had a number of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Howard, Loyola University New Orleans, the University of Tulsa, Northeastern, North Carolina Central University, and Rutgers-Camden. Not only does the Hastie Fellowship Program continue to place its Fellows on law faculties throughout the country, but also many of the alumni from the program have had stellar, even pioneering, careers. These include former Fellows Daniel Bernstine and Stacy Leeds who became law school deans and Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, a nationally and internationally known law professor and public intellectual.

Reforming Property Law to Address Devastating Land Loss

Alabama Law Review

Tenancy-in-common ownership represents the most widespread form of common ownership of real property in the United States. Such ownership under the default rules also represents the most unstable ownership of real property in this country. Thousands of tenancy-in-common property owners, including members of many poor and minority families, have lost their commonly-owned property due to court-ordered, forced partition sales as well as much of their real estate wealth associated with such ownership as a result of such sales. This Article, the lead article for this issue of the Alabama Law Review, reviews and analyzes the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act that represents the most significant reform to partition law in this country in modern times. I served as the Reporter, the person charged with principal responsibility for drafting a uniform act promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, for the UPHPA. The Article summarizes those aspects of partition law that have resulted in thousands of property owners losing millions of acres of property and the real estate wealth associated with such property. The Article also provides an analysis of key sections of the UPHPA, and this analysis makes clear that the UPHPA represents a very comprehensive and innovative reform to what heretofore had long been perceived to be the intractable problem of tenancy-in-common land loss. The UPHPA has been enacted into law in four states, it was introduced for consideration in four other jurisdictions in 2014, and a number of states are on the cusp of introducing it for consideration in 2015.

The Hastie Fellowship Program at Forty: Still Creating Minority Law Professors

Wisconsin Law Review

This article provides a history of and information about the structure of the William H. Hastie Fellowship Program at the University of Wisconsin Law School. This article is part of a series of articles published by the Wisconsin Law Review commemorating Professor James E. Jones Jr., emeritus professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and the founder of the Hastie Fellowship Program. Forty years after this pioneering program was established, the Hastie Fellowship Program continues to represent the preeminent pipeline program that has enabled more than 30 minority lawyers to become tenure-track law professors at law schools throughout the United States. The program continues to develop minority law graduates with the potential to serve as very productive tenure-track law professors into very attractive law faculty candidates. The Article notes that those who have administered the program over the years have always have believed that those with the potential to serve as law professors exist in many places. To this end, though the Hastie Fellowship Program has had its share of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley, and UCLA, it also has had a number of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Howard, Loyola University New Orleans, the University of Tulsa, Northeastern, North Carolina Central University, and Rutgers-Camden. Not only does the Hastie Fellowship Program continue to place its Fellows on law faculties throughout the country, but also many of the alumni from the program have had stellar, even pioneering, careers. These include former Fellows Daniel Bernstine and Stacy Leeds who became law school deans and Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, a nationally and internationally known law professor and public intellectual.

Reforming Property Law to Address Devastating Land Loss

Alabama Law Review

Tenancy-in-common ownership represents the most widespread form of common ownership of real property in the United States. Such ownership under the default rules also represents the most unstable ownership of real property in this country. Thousands of tenancy-in-common property owners, including members of many poor and minority families, have lost their commonly-owned property due to court-ordered, forced partition sales as well as much of their real estate wealth associated with such ownership as a result of such sales. This Article, the lead article for this issue of the Alabama Law Review, reviews and analyzes the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act that represents the most significant reform to partition law in this country in modern times. I served as the Reporter, the person charged with principal responsibility for drafting a uniform act promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, for the UPHPA. The Article summarizes those aspects of partition law that have resulted in thousands of property owners losing millions of acres of property and the real estate wealth associated with such property. The Article also provides an analysis of key sections of the UPHPA, and this analysis makes clear that the UPHPA represents a very comprehensive and innovative reform to what heretofore had long been perceived to be the intractable problem of tenancy-in-common land loss. The UPHPA has been enacted into law in four states, it was introduced for consideration in four other jurisdictions in 2014, and a number of states are on the cusp of introducing it for consideration in 2015.

Restoring Hope for Heirs Property Owners: The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act

American Bar Association's State and Local Law News

This Article provides a summary of the legal problems a diverse group of common property owners have experienced with the law of partition as that law applies to tenancy-in-common properties. Many of these property owners refer to their ownership as heirs property, which is attributable to the fact that most of the fractional interests in such property are transferred by intestacy. A large number of heirs property owners have lost their property over the course of the past several decades as a result of courts that have ordered forced,partition sales of their property. The Article further provides an overview of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act promulgated by the Uniform Law Commission in 2010. The UPHPA represents the most significant reform of partition law in modern times and is designed to make heirs property ownership more secure and to better preserve the real estate wealth of heirs property owners in those instances in which a court does order a partition sale. The Article also highlights that the UPHPA has now been enacted into law by eight states -- in many different regions. This solid enactment record is quite surprising given that those most negatively impacted by the extant partition law have been poor and disadvantaged property owners, many of whom have been racial and ethnic minorities. The Article details the background of South Carolina's enactment in particular, in part because South Carolina has been considered for several decades to be ground zero for partition action abuses and because it was widely considered to be one of the states in which legislators would most fervently resist any effort to reform partition law. Finally, the Article identifies several additional state legislatures that may consider the UPHPA in the near future, including legislatures in Mississippi, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

The Hastie Fellowship Program at Forty: Still Creating Minority Law Professors

Wisconsin Law Review

This article provides a history of and information about the structure of the William H. Hastie Fellowship Program at the University of Wisconsin Law School. This article is part of a series of articles published by the Wisconsin Law Review commemorating Professor James E. Jones Jr., emeritus professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and the founder of the Hastie Fellowship Program. Forty years after this pioneering program was established, the Hastie Fellowship Program continues to represent the preeminent pipeline program that has enabled more than 30 minority lawyers to become tenure-track law professors at law schools throughout the United States. The program continues to develop minority law graduates with the potential to serve as very productive tenure-track law professors into very attractive law faculty candidates. The Article notes that those who have administered the program over the years have always have believed that those with the potential to serve as law professors exist in many places. To this end, though the Hastie Fellowship Program has had its share of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley, and UCLA, it also has had a number of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Howard, Loyola University New Orleans, the University of Tulsa, Northeastern, North Carolina Central University, and Rutgers-Camden. Not only does the Hastie Fellowship Program continue to place its Fellows on law faculties throughout the country, but also many of the alumni from the program have had stellar, even pioneering, careers. These include former Fellows Daniel Bernstine and Stacy Leeds who became law school deans and Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, a nationally and internationally known law professor and public intellectual.

Reforming Property Law to Address Devastating Land Loss

Alabama Law Review

Tenancy-in-common ownership represents the most widespread form of common ownership of real property in the United States. Such ownership under the default rules also represents the most unstable ownership of real property in this country. Thousands of tenancy-in-common property owners, including members of many poor and minority families, have lost their commonly-owned property due to court-ordered, forced partition sales as well as much of their real estate wealth associated with such ownership as a result of such sales. This Article, the lead article for this issue of the Alabama Law Review, reviews and analyzes the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act that represents the most significant reform to partition law in this country in modern times. I served as the Reporter, the person charged with principal responsibility for drafting a uniform act promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, for the UPHPA. The Article summarizes those aspects of partition law that have resulted in thousands of property owners losing millions of acres of property and the real estate wealth associated with such property. The Article also provides an analysis of key sections of the UPHPA, and this analysis makes clear that the UPHPA represents a very comprehensive and innovative reform to what heretofore had long been perceived to be the intractable problem of tenancy-in-common land loss. The UPHPA has been enacted into law in four states, it was introduced for consideration in four other jurisdictions in 2014, and a number of states are on the cusp of introducing it for consideration in 2015.

Restoring Hope for Heirs Property Owners: The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act

American Bar Association's State and Local Law News

This Article provides a summary of the legal problems a diverse group of common property owners have experienced with the law of partition as that law applies to tenancy-in-common properties. Many of these property owners refer to their ownership as heirs property, which is attributable to the fact that most of the fractional interests in such property are transferred by intestacy. A large number of heirs property owners have lost their property over the course of the past several decades as a result of courts that have ordered forced,partition sales of their property. The Article further provides an overview of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act promulgated by the Uniform Law Commission in 2010. The UPHPA represents the most significant reform of partition law in modern times and is designed to make heirs property ownership more secure and to better preserve the real estate wealth of heirs property owners in those instances in which a court does order a partition sale. The Article also highlights that the UPHPA has now been enacted into law by eight states -- in many different regions. This solid enactment record is quite surprising given that those most negatively impacted by the extant partition law have been poor and disadvantaged property owners, many of whom have been racial and ethnic minorities. The Article details the background of South Carolina's enactment in particular, in part because South Carolina has been considered for several decades to be ground zero for partition action abuses and because it was widely considered to be one of the states in which legislators would most fervently resist any effort to reform partition law. Finally, the Article identifies several additional state legislatures that may consider the UPHPA in the near future, including legislatures in Mississippi, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

Forced Sale Risk: Class, Race, and The 'Double Discount'

Florida State University Law Review

What impact does a forced sale have upon a property owner's wealth? And do certain characteristics of a property owner such as whether they are rich or poor or whether they are black or white, tend to affect the price yielded at a forced sale? This Article addresses arguments made by some courts and legal scholars who have claimed that certain types of forced sales result in wealth maximizing, economic efficiencies. The Article addresses such economic arguments by returning to first principles and reviewing the distinction between sales conducted under fair market value conditions and sales conducted under forced sale conditions. This analysis makes it clear that forced sales of real or personal property are conducted under conditions that are rarely likely to yield market value prices. In addition, the Article addresses the fact that judges and legal scholars have utilized a flawed economic analysis of forced sales in cases that often involve property that is owned by low- to middle-class property owners in part because those who are wealthier own their property under more stable ownership structures or utilize private ordering to avoid the chance that a court might order a forced sale under the default rules of certain common ownership structures. The Article also raises the possibility for the first time that the race or ethnicity of a property owner may affect the sales price for property sold at a forced sale, resulting in a "double discount," i.e. a discount from market value for the forced sale and a further discount attributable to the race of the property owner. If minorities are more susceptible to forced sales of their property than white property owners or if there does exist a phenomenon in which minorities suffer a double discount upon the sale of their property at a forced sale, then forced sales of minority-owned property could be contributing to persistent and yawning racial wealth gaps.

The Hastie Fellowship Program at Forty: Still Creating Minority Law Professors

Wisconsin Law Review

This article provides a history of and information about the structure of the William H. Hastie Fellowship Program at the University of Wisconsin Law School. This article is part of a series of articles published by the Wisconsin Law Review commemorating Professor James E. Jones Jr., emeritus professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and the founder of the Hastie Fellowship Program. Forty years after this pioneering program was established, the Hastie Fellowship Program continues to represent the preeminent pipeline program that has enabled more than 30 minority lawyers to become tenure-track law professors at law schools throughout the United States. The program continues to develop minority law graduates with the potential to serve as very productive tenure-track law professors into very attractive law faculty candidates. The Article notes that those who have administered the program over the years have always have believed that those with the potential to serve as law professors exist in many places. To this end, though the Hastie Fellowship Program has had its share of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley, and UCLA, it also has had a number of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Howard, Loyola University New Orleans, the University of Tulsa, Northeastern, North Carolina Central University, and Rutgers-Camden. Not only does the Hastie Fellowship Program continue to place its Fellows on law faculties throughout the country, but also many of the alumni from the program have had stellar, even pioneering, careers. These include former Fellows Daniel Bernstine and Stacy Leeds who became law school deans and Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, a nationally and internationally known law professor and public intellectual.

Reforming Property Law to Address Devastating Land Loss

Alabama Law Review

Tenancy-in-common ownership represents the most widespread form of common ownership of real property in the United States. Such ownership under the default rules also represents the most unstable ownership of real property in this country. Thousands of tenancy-in-common property owners, including members of many poor and minority families, have lost their commonly-owned property due to court-ordered, forced partition sales as well as much of their real estate wealth associated with such ownership as a result of such sales. This Article, the lead article for this issue of the Alabama Law Review, reviews and analyzes the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act that represents the most significant reform to partition law in this country in modern times. I served as the Reporter, the person charged with principal responsibility for drafting a uniform act promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, for the UPHPA. The Article summarizes those aspects of partition law that have resulted in thousands of property owners losing millions of acres of property and the real estate wealth associated with such property. The Article also provides an analysis of key sections of the UPHPA, and this analysis makes clear that the UPHPA represents a very comprehensive and innovative reform to what heretofore had long been perceived to be the intractable problem of tenancy-in-common land loss. The UPHPA has been enacted into law in four states, it was introduced for consideration in four other jurisdictions in 2014, and a number of states are on the cusp of introducing it for consideration in 2015.

Restoring Hope for Heirs Property Owners: The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act

American Bar Association's State and Local Law News

This Article provides a summary of the legal problems a diverse group of common property owners have experienced with the law of partition as that law applies to tenancy-in-common properties. Many of these property owners refer to their ownership as heirs property, which is attributable to the fact that most of the fractional interests in such property are transferred by intestacy. A large number of heirs property owners have lost their property over the course of the past several decades as a result of courts that have ordered forced,partition sales of their property. The Article further provides an overview of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act promulgated by the Uniform Law Commission in 2010. The UPHPA represents the most significant reform of partition law in modern times and is designed to make heirs property ownership more secure and to better preserve the real estate wealth of heirs property owners in those instances in which a court does order a partition sale. The Article also highlights that the UPHPA has now been enacted into law by eight states -- in many different regions. This solid enactment record is quite surprising given that those most negatively impacted by the extant partition law have been poor and disadvantaged property owners, many of whom have been racial and ethnic minorities. The Article details the background of South Carolina's enactment in particular, in part because South Carolina has been considered for several decades to be ground zero for partition action abuses and because it was widely considered to be one of the states in which legislators would most fervently resist any effort to reform partition law. Finally, the Article identifies several additional state legislatures that may consider the UPHPA in the near future, including legislatures in Mississippi, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

Forced Sale Risk: Class, Race, and The 'Double Discount'

Florida State University Law Review

What impact does a forced sale have upon a property owner's wealth? And do certain characteristics of a property owner such as whether they are rich or poor or whether they are black or white, tend to affect the price yielded at a forced sale? This Article addresses arguments made by some courts and legal scholars who have claimed that certain types of forced sales result in wealth maximizing, economic efficiencies. The Article addresses such economic arguments by returning to first principles and reviewing the distinction between sales conducted under fair market value conditions and sales conducted under forced sale conditions. This analysis makes it clear that forced sales of real or personal property are conducted under conditions that are rarely likely to yield market value prices. In addition, the Article addresses the fact that judges and legal scholars have utilized a flawed economic analysis of forced sales in cases that often involve property that is owned by low- to middle-class property owners in part because those who are wealthier own their property under more stable ownership structures or utilize private ordering to avoid the chance that a court might order a forced sale under the default rules of certain common ownership structures. The Article also raises the possibility for the first time that the race or ethnicity of a property owner may affect the sales price for property sold at a forced sale, resulting in a "double discount," i.e. a discount from market value for the forced sale and a further discount attributable to the race of the property owner. If minorities are more susceptible to forced sales of their property than white property owners or if there does exist a phenomenon in which minorities suffer a double discount upon the sale of their property at a forced sale, then forced sales of minority-owned property could be contributing to persistent and yawning racial wealth gaps.

Growing Inequality and Racial Economic Gaps

Howard Law Journal

Over the past several decades, economic inequality has grown dramatically in the United States while inter-generational economic mobility has declined, which has challenged the very notion of the "American Dream." In fact, the United States is more economically unequal than most other industrialized countries. Further, there are dramatic and growing racial economic gaps in this country. Despite the Occupy Wall Street Movement, and the various spinoffs it has catalyzed, there has not been any sustained, widespread social movement to address economic inequality in the United States over the course of the past several decades. Furthermore, it is unlikely that a mass social movement will emerge and endure over a long period of time in the near future to address economic inequality and growing poverty. Greater economic equality in the United States is achievable only if policymakers make fundamental changes in certain key areas of public policy impacting education, the criminal justice system, taxation, and families' ability to invest financial and non-financial resources in their children, among other areas. Although it is unlikely that the legal system can serve as a primary tool to reduce economic inequality in any substantial way, there are a number of legal strategies and initiatives that lawyers and legal organizations, including law schools, could pursue in an effort to increase economic equality and security for many Americans on the margins, including for many persons of color.

The Hastie Fellowship Program at Forty: Still Creating Minority Law Professors

Wisconsin Law Review

This article provides a history of and information about the structure of the William H. Hastie Fellowship Program at the University of Wisconsin Law School. This article is part of a series of articles published by the Wisconsin Law Review commemorating Professor James E. Jones Jr., emeritus professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and the founder of the Hastie Fellowship Program. Forty years after this pioneering program was established, the Hastie Fellowship Program continues to represent the preeminent pipeline program that has enabled more than 30 minority lawyers to become tenure-track law professors at law schools throughout the United States. The program continues to develop minority law graduates with the potential to serve as very productive tenure-track law professors into very attractive law faculty candidates. The Article notes that those who have administered the program over the years have always have believed that those with the potential to serve as law professors exist in many places. To this end, though the Hastie Fellowship Program has had its share of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley, and UCLA, it also has had a number of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Howard, Loyola University New Orleans, the University of Tulsa, Northeastern, North Carolina Central University, and Rutgers-Camden. Not only does the Hastie Fellowship Program continue to place its Fellows on law faculties throughout the country, but also many of the alumni from the program have had stellar, even pioneering, careers. These include former Fellows Daniel Bernstine and Stacy Leeds who became law school deans and Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, a nationally and internationally known law professor and public intellectual.

Reforming Property Law to Address Devastating Land Loss

Alabama Law Review

Tenancy-in-common ownership represents the most widespread form of common ownership of real property in the United States. Such ownership under the default rules also represents the most unstable ownership of real property in this country. Thousands of tenancy-in-common property owners, including members of many poor and minority families, have lost their commonly-owned property due to court-ordered, forced partition sales as well as much of their real estate wealth associated with such ownership as a result of such sales. This Article, the lead article for this issue of the Alabama Law Review, reviews and analyzes the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act that represents the most significant reform to partition law in this country in modern times. I served as the Reporter, the person charged with principal responsibility for drafting a uniform act promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, for the UPHPA. The Article summarizes those aspects of partition law that have resulted in thousands of property owners losing millions of acres of property and the real estate wealth associated with such property. The Article also provides an analysis of key sections of the UPHPA, and this analysis makes clear that the UPHPA represents a very comprehensive and innovative reform to what heretofore had long been perceived to be the intractable problem of tenancy-in-common land loss. The UPHPA has been enacted into law in four states, it was introduced for consideration in four other jurisdictions in 2014, and a number of states are on the cusp of introducing it for consideration in 2015.

Restoring Hope for Heirs Property Owners: The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act

American Bar Association's State and Local Law News

This Article provides a summary of the legal problems a diverse group of common property owners have experienced with the law of partition as that law applies to tenancy-in-common properties. Many of these property owners refer to their ownership as heirs property, which is attributable to the fact that most of the fractional interests in such property are transferred by intestacy. A large number of heirs property owners have lost their property over the course of the past several decades as a result of courts that have ordered forced,partition sales of their property. The Article further provides an overview of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act promulgated by the Uniform Law Commission in 2010. The UPHPA represents the most significant reform of partition law in modern times and is designed to make heirs property ownership more secure and to better preserve the real estate wealth of heirs property owners in those instances in which a court does order a partition sale. The Article also highlights that the UPHPA has now been enacted into law by eight states -- in many different regions. This solid enactment record is quite surprising given that those most negatively impacted by the extant partition law have been poor and disadvantaged property owners, many of whom have been racial and ethnic minorities. The Article details the background of South Carolina's enactment in particular, in part because South Carolina has been considered for several decades to be ground zero for partition action abuses and because it was widely considered to be one of the states in which legislators would most fervently resist any effort to reform partition law. Finally, the Article identifies several additional state legislatures that may consider the UPHPA in the near future, including legislatures in Mississippi, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

Forced Sale Risk: Class, Race, and The 'Double Discount'

Florida State University Law Review

What impact does a forced sale have upon a property owner's wealth? And do certain characteristics of a property owner such as whether they are rich or poor or whether they are black or white, tend to affect the price yielded at a forced sale? This Article addresses arguments made by some courts and legal scholars who have claimed that certain types of forced sales result in wealth maximizing, economic efficiencies. The Article addresses such economic arguments by returning to first principles and reviewing the distinction between sales conducted under fair market value conditions and sales conducted under forced sale conditions. This analysis makes it clear that forced sales of real or personal property are conducted under conditions that are rarely likely to yield market value prices. In addition, the Article addresses the fact that judges and legal scholars have utilized a flawed economic analysis of forced sales in cases that often involve property that is owned by low- to middle-class property owners in part because those who are wealthier own their property under more stable ownership structures or utilize private ordering to avoid the chance that a court might order a forced sale under the default rules of certain common ownership structures. The Article also raises the possibility for the first time that the race or ethnicity of a property owner may affect the sales price for property sold at a forced sale, resulting in a "double discount," i.e. a discount from market value for the forced sale and a further discount attributable to the race of the property owner. If minorities are more susceptible to forced sales of their property than white property owners or if there does exist a phenomenon in which minorities suffer a double discount upon the sale of their property at a forced sale, then forced sales of minority-owned property could be contributing to persistent and yawning racial wealth gaps.

Growing Inequality and Racial Economic Gaps

Howard Law Journal

Over the past several decades, economic inequality has grown dramatically in the United States while inter-generational economic mobility has declined, which has challenged the very notion of the "American Dream." In fact, the United States is more economically unequal than most other industrialized countries. Further, there are dramatic and growing racial economic gaps in this country. Despite the Occupy Wall Street Movement, and the various spinoffs it has catalyzed, there has not been any sustained, widespread social movement to address economic inequality in the United States over the course of the past several decades. Furthermore, it is unlikely that a mass social movement will emerge and endure over a long period of time in the near future to address economic inequality and growing poverty. Greater economic equality in the United States is achievable only if policymakers make fundamental changes in certain key areas of public policy impacting education, the criminal justice system, taxation, and families' ability to invest financial and non-financial resources in their children, among other areas. Although it is unlikely that the legal system can serve as a primary tool to reduce economic inequality in any substantial way, there are a number of legal strategies and initiatives that lawyers and legal organizations, including law schools, could pursue in an effort to increase economic equality and security for many Americans on the margins, including for many persons of color.

Historic Partition Law Reform: A Game Changer for Heirs’ Property Owners

United States Department of Agriculture, E-General Technical Report

This paper addresses the remarkable success of a model state statute named the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), which has been enacted into law in several states since 2011, including in 5 southern states. The UPHPA makes major changes to partition laws that had undergone little change since the 1800s and provides heirs’ property owners with significantly enhanced property rights. As a result, many more heirs’ property owners should be able to maintain ownership of their property or at least the wealth associated with it. In particular, this article describes how the UPHPA has garnered significant support among lawmakers at the state and federal level. At this time, 13 states located throughout every region of the U.S. as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands have enacted the UPHPA into law, making the UPHPA the 6th most successful of the 38 uniform real property acts the Uniform Law Commission has promulgated in its 127-year history. Further, the District of Columbia and New York currently are considering UPHPA bills that have been introduced in their respective legislatures. Over the course of the next several years, it is likely that several more states or other jurisdictions will enact the UPHPA into law. Further, the UPHPA has helped raise awareness of the many problems heirs' property owners face and important stakeholders have taken some very important actions to address some of these concerns. These stakeholders include the USDA's U.S. Forest Service, the USDA's National Resources Conservation Service, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Further, this article describes how the federal Farm Bill that became law in December 2018 explicitly references the UPHPA in a few places and provides incentives for additional states to enact it into law so that farmers and ranchers in those states will be eligible for certain USDA benefits that are only made available to farmers and ranchers who are located in states that have enacted the UPHPA into law.

The Hastie Fellowship Program at Forty: Still Creating Minority Law Professors

Wisconsin Law Review

This article provides a history of and information about the structure of the William H. Hastie Fellowship Program at the University of Wisconsin Law School. This article is part of a series of articles published by the Wisconsin Law Review commemorating Professor James E. Jones Jr., emeritus professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and the founder of the Hastie Fellowship Program. Forty years after this pioneering program was established, the Hastie Fellowship Program continues to represent the preeminent pipeline program that has enabled more than 30 minority lawyers to become tenure-track law professors at law schools throughout the United States. The program continues to develop minority law graduates with the potential to serve as very productive tenure-track law professors into very attractive law faculty candidates. The Article notes that those who have administered the program over the years have always have believed that those with the potential to serve as law professors exist in many places. To this end, though the Hastie Fellowship Program has had its share of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley, and UCLA, it also has had a number of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Howard, Loyola University New Orleans, the University of Tulsa, Northeastern, North Carolina Central University, and Rutgers-Camden. Not only does the Hastie Fellowship Program continue to place its Fellows on law faculties throughout the country, but also many of the alumni from the program have had stellar, even pioneering, careers. These include former Fellows Daniel Bernstine and Stacy Leeds who became law school deans and Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, a nationally and internationally known law professor and public intellectual.

Reforming Property Law to Address Devastating Land Loss

Alabama Law Review

Tenancy-in-common ownership represents the most widespread form of common ownership of real property in the United States. Such ownership under the default rules also represents the most unstable ownership of real property in this country. Thousands of tenancy-in-common property owners, including members of many poor and minority families, have lost their commonly-owned property due to court-ordered, forced partition sales as well as much of their real estate wealth associated with such ownership as a result of such sales. This Article, the lead article for this issue of the Alabama Law Review, reviews and analyzes the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act that represents the most significant reform to partition law in this country in modern times. I served as the Reporter, the person charged with principal responsibility for drafting a uniform act promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, for the UPHPA. The Article summarizes those aspects of partition law that have resulted in thousands of property owners losing millions of acres of property and the real estate wealth associated with such property. The Article also provides an analysis of key sections of the UPHPA, and this analysis makes clear that the UPHPA represents a very comprehensive and innovative reform to what heretofore had long been perceived to be the intractable problem of tenancy-in-common land loss. The UPHPA has been enacted into law in four states, it was introduced for consideration in four other jurisdictions in 2014, and a number of states are on the cusp of introducing it for consideration in 2015.

Restoring Hope for Heirs Property Owners: The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act

American Bar Association's State and Local Law News

This Article provides a summary of the legal problems a diverse group of common property owners have experienced with the law of partition as that law applies to tenancy-in-common properties. Many of these property owners refer to their ownership as heirs property, which is attributable to the fact that most of the fractional interests in such property are transferred by intestacy. A large number of heirs property owners have lost their property over the course of the past several decades as a result of courts that have ordered forced,partition sales of their property. The Article further provides an overview of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act promulgated by the Uniform Law Commission in 2010. The UPHPA represents the most significant reform of partition law in modern times and is designed to make heirs property ownership more secure and to better preserve the real estate wealth of heirs property owners in those instances in which a court does order a partition sale. The Article also highlights that the UPHPA has now been enacted into law by eight states -- in many different regions. This solid enactment record is quite surprising given that those most negatively impacted by the extant partition law have been poor and disadvantaged property owners, many of whom have been racial and ethnic minorities. The Article details the background of South Carolina's enactment in particular, in part because South Carolina has been considered for several decades to be ground zero for partition action abuses and because it was widely considered to be one of the states in which legislators would most fervently resist any effort to reform partition law. Finally, the Article identifies several additional state legislatures that may consider the UPHPA in the near future, including legislatures in Mississippi, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

Forced Sale Risk: Class, Race, and The 'Double Discount'

Florida State University Law Review

What impact does a forced sale have upon a property owner's wealth? And do certain characteristics of a property owner such as whether they are rich or poor or whether they are black or white, tend to affect the price yielded at a forced sale? This Article addresses arguments made by some courts and legal scholars who have claimed that certain types of forced sales result in wealth maximizing, economic efficiencies. The Article addresses such economic arguments by returning to first principles and reviewing the distinction between sales conducted under fair market value conditions and sales conducted under forced sale conditions. This analysis makes it clear that forced sales of real or personal property are conducted under conditions that are rarely likely to yield market value prices. In addition, the Article addresses the fact that judges and legal scholars have utilized a flawed economic analysis of forced sales in cases that often involve property that is owned by low- to middle-class property owners in part because those who are wealthier own their property under more stable ownership structures or utilize private ordering to avoid the chance that a court might order a forced sale under the default rules of certain common ownership structures. The Article also raises the possibility for the first time that the race or ethnicity of a property owner may affect the sales price for property sold at a forced sale, resulting in a "double discount," i.e. a discount from market value for the forced sale and a further discount attributable to the race of the property owner. If minorities are more susceptible to forced sales of their property than white property owners or if there does exist a phenomenon in which minorities suffer a double discount upon the sale of their property at a forced sale, then forced sales of minority-owned property could be contributing to persistent and yawning racial wealth gaps.

Growing Inequality and Racial Economic Gaps

Howard Law Journal

Over the past several decades, economic inequality has grown dramatically in the United States while inter-generational economic mobility has declined, which has challenged the very notion of the "American Dream." In fact, the United States is more economically unequal than most other industrialized countries. Further, there are dramatic and growing racial economic gaps in this country. Despite the Occupy Wall Street Movement, and the various spinoffs it has catalyzed, there has not been any sustained, widespread social movement to address economic inequality in the United States over the course of the past several decades. Furthermore, it is unlikely that a mass social movement will emerge and endure over a long period of time in the near future to address economic inequality and growing poverty. Greater economic equality in the United States is achievable only if policymakers make fundamental changes in certain key areas of public policy impacting education, the criminal justice system, taxation, and families' ability to invest financial and non-financial resources in their children, among other areas. Although it is unlikely that the legal system can serve as a primary tool to reduce economic inequality in any substantial way, there are a number of legal strategies and initiatives that lawyers and legal organizations, including law schools, could pursue in an effort to increase economic equality and security for many Americans on the margins, including for many persons of color.

Historic Partition Law Reform: A Game Changer for Heirs’ Property Owners

United States Department of Agriculture, E-General Technical Report

This paper addresses the remarkable success of a model state statute named the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), which has been enacted into law in several states since 2011, including in 5 southern states. The UPHPA makes major changes to partition laws that had undergone little change since the 1800s and provides heirs’ property owners with significantly enhanced property rights. As a result, many more heirs’ property owners should be able to maintain ownership of their property or at least the wealth associated with it. In particular, this article describes how the UPHPA has garnered significant support among lawmakers at the state and federal level. At this time, 13 states located throughout every region of the U.S. as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands have enacted the UPHPA into law, making the UPHPA the 6th most successful of the 38 uniform real property acts the Uniform Law Commission has promulgated in its 127-year history. Further, the District of Columbia and New York currently are considering UPHPA bills that have been introduced in their respective legislatures. Over the course of the next several years, it is likely that several more states or other jurisdictions will enact the UPHPA into law. Further, the UPHPA has helped raise awareness of the many problems heirs' property owners face and important stakeholders have taken some very important actions to address some of these concerns. These stakeholders include the USDA's U.S. Forest Service, the USDA's National Resources Conservation Service, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Further, this article describes how the federal Farm Bill that became law in December 2018 explicitly references the UPHPA in a few places and provides incentives for additional states to enact it into law so that farmers and ranchers in those states will be eligible for certain USDA benefits that are only made available to farmers and ranchers who are located in states that have enacted the UPHPA into law.

NEW LEGAL REALISM: TRANSLATING LAW-AND-SOCIETY FOR TODAY’S LEGAL PRACTICE (volume one)

Cambridge University Press

The Hastie Fellowship Program at Forty: Still Creating Minority Law Professors

Wisconsin Law Review

This article provides a history of and information about the structure of the William H. Hastie Fellowship Program at the University of Wisconsin Law School. This article is part of a series of articles published by the Wisconsin Law Review commemorating Professor James E. Jones Jr., emeritus professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and the founder of the Hastie Fellowship Program. Forty years after this pioneering program was established, the Hastie Fellowship Program continues to represent the preeminent pipeline program that has enabled more than 30 minority lawyers to become tenure-track law professors at law schools throughout the United States. The program continues to develop minority law graduates with the potential to serve as very productive tenure-track law professors into very attractive law faculty candidates. The Article notes that those who have administered the program over the years have always have believed that those with the potential to serve as law professors exist in many places. To this end, though the Hastie Fellowship Program has had its share of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley, and UCLA, it also has had a number of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Howard, Loyola University New Orleans, the University of Tulsa, Northeastern, North Carolina Central University, and Rutgers-Camden. Not only does the Hastie Fellowship Program continue to place its Fellows on law faculties throughout the country, but also many of the alumni from the program have had stellar, even pioneering, careers. These include former Fellows Daniel Bernstine and Stacy Leeds who became law school deans and Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, a nationally and internationally known law professor and public intellectual.

Reforming Property Law to Address Devastating Land Loss

Alabama Law Review

Tenancy-in-common ownership represents the most widespread form of common ownership of real property in the United States. Such ownership under the default rules also represents the most unstable ownership of real property in this country. Thousands of tenancy-in-common property owners, including members of many poor and minority families, have lost their commonly-owned property due to court-ordered, forced partition sales as well as much of their real estate wealth associated with such ownership as a result of such sales. This Article, the lead article for this issue of the Alabama Law Review, reviews and analyzes the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act that represents the most significant reform to partition law in this country in modern times. I served as the Reporter, the person charged with principal responsibility for drafting a uniform act promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, for the UPHPA. The Article summarizes those aspects of partition law that have resulted in thousands of property owners losing millions of acres of property and the real estate wealth associated with such property. The Article also provides an analysis of key sections of the UPHPA, and this analysis makes clear that the UPHPA represents a very comprehensive and innovative reform to what heretofore had long been perceived to be the intractable problem of tenancy-in-common land loss. The UPHPA has been enacted into law in four states, it was introduced for consideration in four other jurisdictions in 2014, and a number of states are on the cusp of introducing it for consideration in 2015.

Restoring Hope for Heirs Property Owners: The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act

American Bar Association's State and Local Law News

This Article provides a summary of the legal problems a diverse group of common property owners have experienced with the law of partition as that law applies to tenancy-in-common properties. Many of these property owners refer to their ownership as heirs property, which is attributable to the fact that most of the fractional interests in such property are transferred by intestacy. A large number of heirs property owners have lost their property over the course of the past several decades as a result of courts that have ordered forced,partition sales of their property. The Article further provides an overview of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act promulgated by the Uniform Law Commission in 2010. The UPHPA represents the most significant reform of partition law in modern times and is designed to make heirs property ownership more secure and to better preserve the real estate wealth of heirs property owners in those instances in which a court does order a partition sale. The Article also highlights that the UPHPA has now been enacted into law by eight states -- in many different regions. This solid enactment record is quite surprising given that those most negatively impacted by the extant partition law have been poor and disadvantaged property owners, many of whom have been racial and ethnic minorities. The Article details the background of South Carolina's enactment in particular, in part because South Carolina has been considered for several decades to be ground zero for partition action abuses and because it was widely considered to be one of the states in which legislators would most fervently resist any effort to reform partition law. Finally, the Article identifies several additional state legislatures that may consider the UPHPA in the near future, including legislatures in Mississippi, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

Forced Sale Risk: Class, Race, and The 'Double Discount'

Florida State University Law Review

What impact does a forced sale have upon a property owner's wealth? And do certain characteristics of a property owner such as whether they are rich or poor or whether they are black or white, tend to affect the price yielded at a forced sale? This Article addresses arguments made by some courts and legal scholars who have claimed that certain types of forced sales result in wealth maximizing, economic efficiencies. The Article addresses such economic arguments by returning to first principles and reviewing the distinction between sales conducted under fair market value conditions and sales conducted under forced sale conditions. This analysis makes it clear that forced sales of real or personal property are conducted under conditions that are rarely likely to yield market value prices. In addition, the Article addresses the fact that judges and legal scholars have utilized a flawed economic analysis of forced sales in cases that often involve property that is owned by low- to middle-class property owners in part because those who are wealthier own their property under more stable ownership structures or utilize private ordering to avoid the chance that a court might order a forced sale under the default rules of certain common ownership structures. The Article also raises the possibility for the first time that the race or ethnicity of a property owner may affect the sales price for property sold at a forced sale, resulting in a "double discount," i.e. a discount from market value for the forced sale and a further discount attributable to the race of the property owner. If minorities are more susceptible to forced sales of their property than white property owners or if there does exist a phenomenon in which minorities suffer a double discount upon the sale of their property at a forced sale, then forced sales of minority-owned property could be contributing to persistent and yawning racial wealth gaps.

Growing Inequality and Racial Economic Gaps

Howard Law Journal

Over the past several decades, economic inequality has grown dramatically in the United States while inter-generational economic mobility has declined, which has challenged the very notion of the "American Dream." In fact, the United States is more economically unequal than most other industrialized countries. Further, there are dramatic and growing racial economic gaps in this country. Despite the Occupy Wall Street Movement, and the various spinoffs it has catalyzed, there has not been any sustained, widespread social movement to address economic inequality in the United States over the course of the past several decades. Furthermore, it is unlikely that a mass social movement will emerge and endure over a long period of time in the near future to address economic inequality and growing poverty. Greater economic equality in the United States is achievable only if policymakers make fundamental changes in certain key areas of public policy impacting education, the criminal justice system, taxation, and families' ability to invest financial and non-financial resources in their children, among other areas. Although it is unlikely that the legal system can serve as a primary tool to reduce economic inequality in any substantial way, there are a number of legal strategies and initiatives that lawyers and legal organizations, including law schools, could pursue in an effort to increase economic equality and security for many Americans on the margins, including for many persons of color.

Historic Partition Law Reform: A Game Changer for Heirs’ Property Owners

United States Department of Agriculture, E-General Technical Report

This paper addresses the remarkable success of a model state statute named the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), which has been enacted into law in several states since 2011, including in 5 southern states. The UPHPA makes major changes to partition laws that had undergone little change since the 1800s and provides heirs’ property owners with significantly enhanced property rights. As a result, many more heirs’ property owners should be able to maintain ownership of their property or at least the wealth associated with it. In particular, this article describes how the UPHPA has garnered significant support among lawmakers at the state and federal level. At this time, 13 states located throughout every region of the U.S. as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands have enacted the UPHPA into law, making the UPHPA the 6th most successful of the 38 uniform real property acts the Uniform Law Commission has promulgated in its 127-year history. Further, the District of Columbia and New York currently are considering UPHPA bills that have been introduced in their respective legislatures. Over the course of the next several years, it is likely that several more states or other jurisdictions will enact the UPHPA into law. Further, the UPHPA has helped raise awareness of the many problems heirs' property owners face and important stakeholders have taken some very important actions to address some of these concerns. These stakeholders include the USDA's U.S. Forest Service, the USDA's National Resources Conservation Service, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Further, this article describes how the federal Farm Bill that became law in December 2018 explicitly references the UPHPA in a few places and provides incentives for additional states to enact it into law so that farmers and ranchers in those states will be eligible for certain USDA benefits that are only made available to farmers and ranchers who are located in states that have enacted the UPHPA into law.

NEW LEGAL REALISM: TRANSLATING LAW-AND-SOCIETY FOR TODAY’S LEGAL PRACTICE (volume one)

Cambridge University Press

Bias and a Settlement With Black Farmers

New York Times

The Hastie Fellowship Program at Forty: Still Creating Minority Law Professors

Wisconsin Law Review

This article provides a history of and information about the structure of the William H. Hastie Fellowship Program at the University of Wisconsin Law School. This article is part of a series of articles published by the Wisconsin Law Review commemorating Professor James E. Jones Jr., emeritus professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and the founder of the Hastie Fellowship Program. Forty years after this pioneering program was established, the Hastie Fellowship Program continues to represent the preeminent pipeline program that has enabled more than 30 minority lawyers to become tenure-track law professors at law schools throughout the United States. The program continues to develop minority law graduates with the potential to serve as very productive tenure-track law professors into very attractive law faculty candidates. The Article notes that those who have administered the program over the years have always have believed that those with the potential to serve as law professors exist in many places. To this end, though the Hastie Fellowship Program has had its share of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley, and UCLA, it also has had a number of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Howard, Loyola University New Orleans, the University of Tulsa, Northeastern, North Carolina Central University, and Rutgers-Camden. Not only does the Hastie Fellowship Program continue to place its Fellows on law faculties throughout the country, but also many of the alumni from the program have had stellar, even pioneering, careers. These include former Fellows Daniel Bernstine and Stacy Leeds who became law school deans and Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, a nationally and internationally known law professor and public intellectual.

Reforming Property Law to Address Devastating Land Loss

Alabama Law Review

Tenancy-in-common ownership represents the most widespread form of common ownership of real property in the United States. Such ownership under the default rules also represents the most unstable ownership of real property in this country. Thousands of tenancy-in-common property owners, including members of many poor and minority families, have lost their commonly-owned property due to court-ordered, forced partition sales as well as much of their real estate wealth associated with such ownership as a result of such sales. This Article, the lead article for this issue of the Alabama Law Review, reviews and analyzes the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act that represents the most significant reform to partition law in this country in modern times. I served as the Reporter, the person charged with principal responsibility for drafting a uniform act promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, for the UPHPA. The Article summarizes those aspects of partition law that have resulted in thousands of property owners losing millions of acres of property and the real estate wealth associated with such property. The Article also provides an analysis of key sections of the UPHPA, and this analysis makes clear that the UPHPA represents a very comprehensive and innovative reform to what heretofore had long been perceived to be the intractable problem of tenancy-in-common land loss. The UPHPA has been enacted into law in four states, it was introduced for consideration in four other jurisdictions in 2014, and a number of states are on the cusp of introducing it for consideration in 2015.

Restoring Hope for Heirs Property Owners: The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act

American Bar Association's State and Local Law News

This Article provides a summary of the legal problems a diverse group of common property owners have experienced with the law of partition as that law applies to tenancy-in-common properties. Many of these property owners refer to their ownership as heirs property, which is attributable to the fact that most of the fractional interests in such property are transferred by intestacy. A large number of heirs property owners have lost their property over the course of the past several decades as a result of courts that have ordered forced,partition sales of their property. The Article further provides an overview of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act promulgated by the Uniform Law Commission in 2010. The UPHPA represents the most significant reform of partition law in modern times and is designed to make heirs property ownership more secure and to better preserve the real estate wealth of heirs property owners in those instances in which a court does order a partition sale. The Article also highlights that the UPHPA has now been enacted into law by eight states -- in many different regions. This solid enactment record is quite surprising given that those most negatively impacted by the extant partition law have been poor and disadvantaged property owners, many of whom have been racial and ethnic minorities. The Article details the background of South Carolina's enactment in particular, in part because South Carolina has been considered for several decades to be ground zero for partition action abuses and because it was widely considered to be one of the states in which legislators would most fervently resist any effort to reform partition law. Finally, the Article identifies several additional state legislatures that may consider the UPHPA in the near future, including legislatures in Mississippi, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

Forced Sale Risk: Class, Race, and The 'Double Discount'

Florida State University Law Review

What impact does a forced sale have upon a property owner's wealth? And do certain characteristics of a property owner such as whether they are rich or poor or whether they are black or white, tend to affect the price yielded at a forced sale? This Article addresses arguments made by some courts and legal scholars who have claimed that certain types of forced sales result in wealth maximizing, economic efficiencies. The Article addresses such economic arguments by returning to first principles and reviewing the distinction between sales conducted under fair market value conditions and sales conducted under forced sale conditions. This analysis makes it clear that forced sales of real or personal property are conducted under conditions that are rarely likely to yield market value prices. In addition, the Article addresses the fact that judges and legal scholars have utilized a flawed economic analysis of forced sales in cases that often involve property that is owned by low- to middle-class property owners in part because those who are wealthier own their property under more stable ownership structures or utilize private ordering to avoid the chance that a court might order a forced sale under the default rules of certain common ownership structures. The Article also raises the possibility for the first time that the race or ethnicity of a property owner may affect the sales price for property sold at a forced sale, resulting in a "double discount," i.e. a discount from market value for the forced sale and a further discount attributable to the race of the property owner. If minorities are more susceptible to forced sales of their property than white property owners or if there does exist a phenomenon in which minorities suffer a double discount upon the sale of their property at a forced sale, then forced sales of minority-owned property could be contributing to persistent and yawning racial wealth gaps.

Growing Inequality and Racial Economic Gaps

Howard Law Journal

Over the past several decades, economic inequality has grown dramatically in the United States while inter-generational economic mobility has declined, which has challenged the very notion of the "American Dream." In fact, the United States is more economically unequal than most other industrialized countries. Further, there are dramatic and growing racial economic gaps in this country. Despite the Occupy Wall Street Movement, and the various spinoffs it has catalyzed, there has not been any sustained, widespread social movement to address economic inequality in the United States over the course of the past several decades. Furthermore, it is unlikely that a mass social movement will emerge and endure over a long period of time in the near future to address economic inequality and growing poverty. Greater economic equality in the United States is achievable only if policymakers make fundamental changes in certain key areas of public policy impacting education, the criminal justice system, taxation, and families' ability to invest financial and non-financial resources in their children, among other areas. Although it is unlikely that the legal system can serve as a primary tool to reduce economic inequality in any substantial way, there are a number of legal strategies and initiatives that lawyers and legal organizations, including law schools, could pursue in an effort to increase economic equality and security for many Americans on the margins, including for many persons of color.

Historic Partition Law Reform: A Game Changer for Heirs’ Property Owners

United States Department of Agriculture, E-General Technical Report

This paper addresses the remarkable success of a model state statute named the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), which has been enacted into law in several states since 2011, including in 5 southern states. The UPHPA makes major changes to partition laws that had undergone little change since the 1800s and provides heirs’ property owners with significantly enhanced property rights. As a result, many more heirs’ property owners should be able to maintain ownership of their property or at least the wealth associated with it. In particular, this article describes how the UPHPA has garnered significant support among lawmakers at the state and federal level. At this time, 13 states located throughout every region of the U.S. as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands have enacted the UPHPA into law, making the UPHPA the 6th most successful of the 38 uniform real property acts the Uniform Law Commission has promulgated in its 127-year history. Further, the District of Columbia and New York currently are considering UPHPA bills that have been introduced in their respective legislatures. Over the course of the next several years, it is likely that several more states or other jurisdictions will enact the UPHPA into law. Further, the UPHPA has helped raise awareness of the many problems heirs' property owners face and important stakeholders have taken some very important actions to address some of these concerns. These stakeholders include the USDA's U.S. Forest Service, the USDA's National Resources Conservation Service, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Further, this article describes how the federal Farm Bill that became law in December 2018 explicitly references the UPHPA in a few places and provides incentives for additional states to enact it into law so that farmers and ranchers in those states will be eligible for certain USDA benefits that are only made available to farmers and ranchers who are located in states that have enacted the UPHPA into law.

NEW LEGAL REALISM: TRANSLATING LAW-AND-SOCIETY FOR TODAY’S LEGAL PRACTICE (volume one)

Cambridge University Press

Bias and a Settlement With Black Farmers

New York Times

Destabilizing the Normalization of Rural Black Land Loss: A Critical Role for Legal Empiricism

Wisconsin Law Review

This article which exemplifies the New Legal Realist goal of combining qualitative and quantitative empirical research to shed light on important legal and policy issues examines the phenomenon of black land loss. The article demonstrates the utility of a ground-level contextual analysis that examines legal problems from the bottom up. The study tracks processes by which black rural landowners have gradually been dispossessed of more than 90% of the land held by their predecessors in 1910. The article points out that despite the continuing practices that contribute to this problem, there has been very little research on the issue, and what little attention legal scholars have paid to it has proceeded in an empirical vacuum. The article proceeds to examine existing data, and to describe the ongoing empirical research being conducted on black rural land loss in the U.S. south by the author and two real estate economists. The article concludes that a thoroughly contextual analysis (combining qualitative with quantitative methods) is necessary if we are to achieve an accurate understanding of the process by which law contributes to black rural land loss in this country. This kind of understanding will help undermine the notion that it is normal for poor and minority property owners to lose their property and will permit more effective policy decisions, both within and outside of the law.

The Hastie Fellowship Program at Forty: Still Creating Minority Law Professors

Wisconsin Law Review

This article provides a history of and information about the structure of the William H. Hastie Fellowship Program at the University of Wisconsin Law School. This article is part of a series of articles published by the Wisconsin Law Review commemorating Professor James E. Jones Jr., emeritus professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and the founder of the Hastie Fellowship Program. Forty years after this pioneering program was established, the Hastie Fellowship Program continues to represent the preeminent pipeline program that has enabled more than 30 minority lawyers to become tenure-track law professors at law schools throughout the United States. The program continues to develop minority law graduates with the potential to serve as very productive tenure-track law professors into very attractive law faculty candidates. The Article notes that those who have administered the program over the years have always have believed that those with the potential to serve as law professors exist in many places. To this end, though the Hastie Fellowship Program has had its share of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley, and UCLA, it also has had a number of Fellows who received their J.D. degrees from schools such as Howard, Loyola University New Orleans, the University of Tulsa, Northeastern, North Carolina Central University, and Rutgers-Camden. Not only does the Hastie Fellowship Program continue to place its Fellows on law faculties throughout the country, but also many of the alumni from the program have had stellar, even pioneering, careers. These include former Fellows Daniel Bernstine and Stacy Leeds who became law school deans and Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, a nationally and internationally known law professor and public intellectual.

Reforming Property Law to Address Devastating Land Loss

Alabama Law Review

Tenancy-in-common ownership represents the most widespread form of common ownership of real property in the United States. Such ownership under the default rules also represents the most unstable ownership of real property in this country. Thousands of tenancy-in-common property owners, including members of many poor and minority families, have lost their commonly-owned property due to court-ordered, forced partition sales as well as much of their real estate wealth associated with such ownership as a result of such sales. This Article, the lead article for this issue of the Alabama Law Review, reviews and analyzes the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act that represents the most significant reform to partition law in this country in modern times. I served as the Reporter, the person charged with principal responsibility for drafting a uniform act promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, for the UPHPA. The Article summarizes those aspects of partition law that have resulted in thousands of property owners losing millions of acres of property and the real estate wealth associated with such property. The Article also provides an analysis of key sections of the UPHPA, and this analysis makes clear that the UPHPA represents a very comprehensive and innovative reform to what heretofore had long been perceived to be the intractable problem of tenancy-in-common land loss. The UPHPA has been enacted into law in four states, it was introduced for consideration in four other jurisdictions in 2014, and a number of states are on the cusp of introducing it for consideration in 2015.

Restoring Hope for Heirs Property Owners: The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act

American Bar Association's State and Local Law News

This Article provides a summary of the legal problems a diverse group of common property owners have experienced with the law of partition as that law applies to tenancy-in-common properties. Many of these property owners refer to their ownership as heirs property, which is attributable to the fact that most of the fractional interests in such property are transferred by intestacy. A large number of heirs property owners have lost their property over the course of the past several decades as a result of courts that have ordered forced,partition sales of their property. The Article further provides an overview of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a uniform act promulgated by the Uniform Law Commission in 2010. The UPHPA represents the most significant reform of partition law in modern times and is designed to make heirs property ownership more secure and to better preserve the real estate wealth of heirs property owners in those instances in which a court does order a partition sale. The Article also highlights that the UPHPA has now been enacted into law by eight states -- in many different regions. This solid enactment record is quite surprising given that those most negatively impacted by the extant partition law have been poor and disadvantaged property owners, many of whom have been racial and ethnic minorities. The Article details the background of South Carolina's enactment in particular, in part because South Carolina has been considered for several decades to be ground zero for partition action abuses and because it was widely considered to be one of the states in which legislators would most fervently resist any effort to reform partition law. Finally, the Article identifies several additional state legislatures that may consider the UPHPA in the near future, including legislatures in Mississippi, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

Forced Sale Risk: Class, Race, and The 'Double Discount'

Florida State University Law Review

What impact does a forced sale have upon a property owner's wealth? And do certain characteristics of a property owner such as whether they are rich or poor or whether they are black or white, tend to affect the price yielded at a forced sale? This Article addresses arguments made by some courts and legal scholars who have claimed that certain types of forced sales result in wealth maximizing, economic efficiencies. The Article addresses such economic arguments by returning to first principles and reviewing the distinction between sales conducted under fair market value conditions and sales conducted under forced sale conditions. This analysis makes it clear that forced sales of real or personal property are conducted under conditions that are rarely likely to yield market value prices. In addition, the Article addresses the fact that judges and legal scholars have utilized a flawed economic analysis of forced sales in cases that often involve property that is owned by low- to middle-class property owners in part because those who are wealthier own their property under more stable ownership structures or utilize private ordering to avoid the chance that a court might order a forced sale under the default rules of certain common ownership structures. The Article also raises the possibility for the first time that the race or ethnicity of a property owner may affect the sales price for property sold at a forced sale, resulting in a "double discount," i.e. a discount from market value for the forced sale and a further discount attributable to the race of the property owner. If minorities are more susceptible to forced sales of their property than white property owners or if there does exist a phenomenon in which minorities suffer a double discount upon the sale of their property at a forced sale, then forced sales of minority-owned property could be contributing to persistent and yawning racial wealth gaps.

Growing Inequality and Racial Economic Gaps

Howard Law Journal

Over the past several decades, economic inequality has grown dramatically in the United States while inter-generational economic mobility has declined, which has challenged the very notion of the "American Dream." In fact, the United States is more economically unequal than most other industrialized countries. Further, there are dramatic and growing racial economic gaps in this country. Despite the Occupy Wall Street Movement, and the various spinoffs it has catalyzed, there has not been any sustained, widespread social movement to address economic inequality in the United States over the course of the past several decades. Furthermore, it is unlikely that a mass social movement will emerge and endure over a long period of time in the near future to address economic inequality and growing poverty. Greater economic equality in the United States is achievable only if policymakers make fundamental changes in certain key areas of public policy impacting education, the criminal justice system, taxation, and families' ability to invest financial and non-financial resources in their children, among other areas. Although it is unlikely that the legal system can serve as a primary tool to reduce economic inequality in any substantial way, there are a number of legal strategies and initiatives that lawyers and legal organizations, including law schools, could pursue in an effort to increase economic equality and security for many Americans on the margins, including for many persons of color.

Historic Partition Law Reform: A Game Changer for Heirs’ Property Owners

United States Department of Agriculture, E-General Technical Report

This paper addresses the remarkable success of a model state statute named the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), which has been enacted into law in several states since 2011, including in 5 southern states. The UPHPA makes major changes to partition laws that had undergone little change since the 1800s and provides heirs’ property owners with significantly enhanced property rights. As a result, many more heirs’ property owners should be able to maintain ownership of their property or at least the wealth associated with it. In particular, this article describes how the UPHPA has garnered significant support among lawmakers at the state and federal level. At this time, 13 states located throughout every region of the U.S. as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands have enacted the UPHPA into law, making the UPHPA the 6th most successful of the 38 uniform real property acts the Uniform Law Commission has promulgated in its 127-year history. Further, the District of Columbia and New York currently are considering UPHPA bills that have been introduced in their respective legislatures. Over the course of the next several years, it is likely that several more states or other jurisdictions will enact the UPHPA into law. Further, the UPHPA has helped raise awareness of the many problems heirs' property owners face and important stakeholders have taken some very important actions to address some of these concerns. These stakeholders include the USDA's U.S. Forest Service, the USDA's National Resources Conservation Service, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Further, this article describes how the federal Farm Bill that became law in December 2018 explicitly references the UPHPA in a few places and provides incentives for additional states to enact it into law so that farmers and ranchers in those states will be eligible for certain USDA benefits that are only made available to farmers and ranchers who are located in states that have enacted the UPHPA into law.

NEW LEGAL REALISM: TRANSLATING LAW-AND-SOCIETY FOR TODAY’S LEGAL PRACTICE (volume one)

Cambridge University Press

Bias and a Settlement With Black Farmers

New York Times

Destabilizing the Normalization of Rural Black Land Loss: A Critical Role for Legal Empiricism

Wisconsin Law Review

This article which exemplifies the New Legal Realist goal of combining qualitative and quantitative empirical research to shed light on important legal and policy issues examines the phenomenon of black land loss. The article demonstrates the utility of a ground-level contextual analysis that examines legal problems from the bottom up. The study tracks processes by which black rural landowners have gradually been dispossessed of more than 90% of the land held by their predecessors in 1910. The article points out that despite the continuing practices that contribute to this problem, there has been very little research on the issue, and what little attention legal scholars have paid to it has proceeded in an empirical vacuum. The article proceeds to examine existing data, and to describe the ongoing empirical research being conducted on black rural land loss in the U.S. south by the author and two real estate economists. The article concludes that a thoroughly contextual analysis (combining qualitative with quantitative methods) is necessary if we are to achieve an accurate understanding of the process by which law contributes to black rural land loss in this country. This kind of understanding will help undermine the notion that it is normal for poor and minority property owners to lose their property and will permit more effective policy decisions, both within and outside of the law.

From Reconstruction to Deconstruction: Undermining Black Ownership, Political Independence, and Community Through Partition Sales of Tenancies in Common

Northwestern University Law Review

This article considers one of the primary ways in which African Americans have lost millions of acres of land that they were able to acquire in the latter part of the nineteenth century and the beginning part of the twentieth century and the sociopolitical implications of this land loss. Specifically, this article highlights the fact that forced partition sales of tenancy in common property, referred to more commonly as heirs' property, have been a major source of black land loss within the African American community. The article argues that such land loss has had a negative impact upon the African American community given that the acquisition of land represented more than simply the acquisition of an important economic asset for African Americans who had been denied the opportunity for the most part to become real property owners prior to the Civil War and the period of Reconstruction. After Reconstruction, many African Americans believed that landownership would enable them to participate much more robustly in the political life of the country and in civil society. In contrast to the default rules governing exit from tenancy in common ownership, the article demonstrates that the law often enables certain groups or communities to own property under various common ownership structures in a way that supports the ability of these groups and communities to maintain stable ownership of their real property over time. To address the problem, this article advocates for several reform proposals. These proposed reforms include proposed modifications to the default rules governing tenancy in common property that would enable groups such as African Americans who own much of their land under these default rules to maintain ownership of their property in a significantly more stable way than they do today.