Two Nebraska law schools were recognized as part of a webinar hosted by the White House and the U.S. Department of Justice last week for their efforts in assisting tenants facing eviction after the federal pandemic-based eviction moratorium ended.

Creighton University School of Law and the University of Nebraska College of Law were two of 99 law schools across the country that responded to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s call to action regarding the threat of evictions last August.

Garland asked the nation’s legal communities to help their communities by assisting in filing rental assistance applications and by serving as counsel for those facing eviction in the wake of COVID-19.

“I am grateful to the law school students, the professors and deans who are working on this project with us and who are here today,” Garland said. “But I am even more grateful that when I issued a call to action to this community, you responded.”

Creighton Law assisted renters in Douglas County by partnering with the Volunteer Lawyers Project and Tenant Assistance Project. Law students trained in Nebraska landlord-tenant law in order to prepare eviction defense packets and provide limited representation to negotiate settlements and represent the tenant in the eviction hearing.

To date, pro bono attorneys and law students have provided more than 220 hours of free legal service.

“At Creighton Law, our Jesuit mission calls us to serve others and pursue social justice, so we were drawn to answer the Attorney General’s Call to Action to the Legal Profession to address the housing and eviction crisis,” Creighton Law Dean Josh Fershée said in a news release. “It was a natural extension of the work being done in our legal clinic and pro bono program, and I am proud of our students and faculty who stepped up to add additional support to those in need in our community.”

Douglas County District Court Judge Stephanie Hansen has welcomed the attorneys and law students into her courtroom.

“It has been nice to see so many attorneys volunteering for the Tenant Assistance Project over the past few months,” Hansen said in an interview with The Daily Record. “With the assistance of volunteer attorneys, landlords and tenants have been able to access rental assistance funds and work toward amicable resolutions of the legal issues in a much more streamlined process.”

A handful of law students from schools across the country were invited to talk about their law school’s efforts during the webinar, including third-year Nebraska Law student Rachel Tomlinson Dick.

Tomlinson Dick first pointed out that Nebraska has some of the “most unfair” eviction laws in the country, noting that tenants do not need to be made aware of upcoming eviction hearings.

“Until recently, this resulted in many tenants being completely unaware that they were being evicted until a sheriff or constable came to their home and forcibly removed them and placed their belongings on the sidewalk,” Tomlinson Dick said.

Nebraska Law students and other TAP volunteers began visiting the homes of every tenant with an upcoming eviction hearing to ensure they knew when they had to be in court. They also created eviction defense packets and made schedules for volunteers to be at the courthouse to assist tenants when they arrive.

“Attorney General Garland’s call to action — and our Dean Richard Moberly’s swift and enthusiastic response to it — helped us to expand from a small group of dedicated volunteers to a community of students engaging with efforts to prevent mass eviction in our state,” Tomlinson Dick said.

Since Garland’s call to action, Nebraska’s TAP has a 98% success rate in preventing immediate eviction and has assisted more than 400 families, Tomlinson Dick said. More than $9 million in emergency rental assistance has been distributed.

“Contributing to this work has shown me the impact that is possible when people within the legal community prioritize working to prevent injustice in tangible ways,” Tomlinson Dick said.

The webinar also featured remarks from second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Gene Sperling, senior advisor to the president and coordinator for the American Rescue Plan, among others.

“We believe that the increased access to counsel that is being provided by such dedicated law students and clinical programs has prevented eviction, despair and even homelessness for countless families, and that these types of access to justice and court diversion reforms are also critical to the long-term reforms needed to build back to a better and more humane national eviction policy,” Sperling said.

In all, more than 2,100 students dedicated more than 81,000 hours, serving 10,000 households, according to a tracking survey.

Find more from the White House at bit.ly/3rjr94J.