Ana Rivera Joins Northeastern Law as Associate Clinical Professor and Director of New Housing Rights Advocacy Clinic
03.14.22 — Northeastern Law is pleased to announce that Ana Rivera will join our community on August 1, 2022, as an associate clinical professor and director of a new housing rights advocacy clinic. In this role, Rivera will help students learn and practice core litigation skills, hone ethical and professional mindsets, and gain substantive knowledge in housing law. Her work will enhance Northeastern Law’s mission to advance social justice for low-income and underrepresented communities.
“Professor Rivera brings to Northeastern a passion for social justice that will serve our students and community well as she launches our new housing rights advocacy clinic,” said Dean James Hackney. “We are delighted to welcome such a highly skilled advocate and inspirational educator to Northeastern.”
Rivera joins Northeastern from New England Law | Boston where, as a faculty fellow, she taught Property Law I and Property Law II to first-year students. As a faculty fellow, she welcomed the opportunity to re-examine and deepen her expertise in an area of law that is foundational to her clinical teaching and housing practice. She also endeavored to foster, with her students, intellectual engagement with how frameworks in property law interact with vulnerable communities to reinforce structural inequities. Her research interests focus on how these structural inequities contribute to housing insecurity and destabilization.
Before joining New England Law | Boston, Rivera served as a visiting clinical professor in the Civil Litigation Clinic at Boston College Law School, practicing in the areas of housing law, family law and public benefits law. She capped her visiting role at Boston College Law School by designing and directing the Covid Relief Housing Clinic in spring 2021. It was conceived as a response to the housing eviction crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the clinic and its law students partnered with a local community housing organization to deliver legal services and community education on tenants’ rights. “As a group, the students were drawn by a desire to help mitigate the housing crisis caused by the pandemic. It’s gratifying to think that, years down the line, they’ll look back and recollect their contributions to the community during this chaotic and surreal time,” she said.
Prior to teaching, Rivera practiced as a litigator at firms in Boston, including Todd & Weld and Peabody & Arnold, with a focus on commercial litigation, employment law and insurance defense. Upon graduating with a JD from Boston College Law School, she served as a law clerk to the justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court. She holds a BA from Smith College.
“I am drawn to Northeastern Law’s commitment to training students to be holistic lawyers, instilling great awareness of the many inequities in our society and the agency and responsibility that lawyers have to improve the law and increase access to justice,” said Rivera. “I am excited to join the community as the inaugural director of a housing rights clinic and contribute in this way to Northeastern’s social justice mission.”
About Northeastern University School of Law
The nation’s leader in experiential legal education since 1968, Northeastern University School of Law offers the longest-running, most extensive experience-based legal education program in the country. Northeastern guarantees its students unparalleled practical legal work experiences through its signature Cooperative Legal Education Program. More than 1,000 employers worldwide in a wide range of legal, government, nonprofit and business organizations participate in the program. With a focus on social justice and innovation, Northeastern University School of Law blends theory and practice, providing students with a unique set of skills and experiences to successfully practice law.
For more information, contact d.feldman@northeastern.edu.