The University of Texas at Austin   School of Law

Education

• JD University of Texas at Austin
• BA University of Texas at Austin
• BJ University of Texas at Austin

Areas of Specialty

• Public Service Lawyering
• Real Estate

Heather K. Way directs the Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic. Way has been a practitioner in the field of community development and affordable housing law since 1997. Prior to joining the faculty in 2006, she was the founder and Director of Texas Community Building with Attorney Resources, which provides legal education and pro bono legal assistance to nonprofit organizations. Prior to that, Way was a Skadden Fellow and staff attorney at Legal Aid of Central Texas working in the field of affordable housing and community development.

Way frequently lectures on topics in the fields of affordable housing, nonprofit organizations, and community development. Her work focuses on analyzing and developing laws and public policies that promote the creation of equitable and sustainable communities, including: problem properties, land title issues in low-income communities, land banks, housing preservation, transit-oriented development, and inclusionary housing.

Way is a recipient of the Outstanding Young Lawyer of Texas award from the State Bar of Texas and has been recognized as one of the Top 40 Lawyers Under 40 by the Texas Lawyer. She was recently recognized as an Austin Affordable Housing Hero by Interfaith Action of Central Texas. She is also the recipient of the outstanding "Houser" award by the Texas Low Income Housing Information Services and the Community Champion Award by the Texas Association of Community Development Corporations. Articles include: “Informal Homeownership in the United States and the Law,” St. Louis University Public Law Review (2010).

Recent Publications

• Reflections: The Honorable William Wayne Justice, 89 Texas Law Review 11 (2010). View Article
• Informal Homeownership in the United States and the Law, 29 Saint Louis University Public Law Review 113 (2009). <http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/hway/informal-homeownership.pdf>

Full list of publications…

Recent Activities

• Opportunity Forum Gentrification Series: Protecting Tenants Displaced from Redevelopment Projects

  October 26, 2012

  LBJ School of Public Affairs

  http://www.utexas.edu/law/centers/opportunity-forum/events/gentrification-series-protecting-tenants-displaced-from-redevelopment-projects/

• Informal contracts still put many Texas homeowners at risk, UT study shows

  October 21, 2012

  Austin American-Statesman

  http://www.statesman.com/news/news/informal-contracts-still-put-many-Texas-homeowners/nSh5D/

• Breakdown of Austin's 2012 Tax and Fee Increases

  September 12, 2012

  KUT

  http://kut.org/2012/09/breakdown-of-austins-2012-tax-and-fee-increases/

Full activities list…