Scholarship and Research

The second aspect of the Center's mission is to be a leading force in research and scholarship in the area of Real Estate Law and Practice through faculty publication, the Kratovil Conference on Real Estate Law & Practice and cutting-edge initiatives such as the Legal Case Study Project.

The Center's professors have an excellent reputation as authors of treatises, casebooks, and law review articles that are used at law schools and even business schools all over the country.  Professor Celeste Hammond has written Modern Real Estate Finance and Land Transfer - A Transactional Approach (with Bender, Madison & Zinman) 4th ed. Aspen (2008) and Commercial Leasing - A Transactional Primer (with Bogart) Carolina Academic Press (2007).  Professor Debra Stark has written Residential Real Estate Law:  A Transactional Skills Analysis, Carolina Academic Press (2004) and Commercial Real Estate Transactions:  A Project and Skills Oriented Approach (with Cameron, Durham & White) LexisNexis (2001).

As part of the faculty's leadership in real estate legal education, the Center has launched the Legal Case Study Project.  The Legal Case Study Project represents a significant and innovative approach to law school teaching.  It responds to criticisms and suggestions of the MacCrate Report on Legal Education and to the more recent Carnegie Foundation Report on Teaching for the Legal Profession.  Both of these studies of traditional legal education stress the need for skills training and "learning within a context."  The Legal Case Study concept is adapted from the case studies used by business schools that have been developed since 1925 by Harvard Business School.  The Legal Case Study Project involves professors who collaborate with those involved in a  real estate deal to explore both the business and legal issues that arise as a real-life real estate transaction progresses.  The first Legal Case Study was presented in November 2008 by Professor Celeste Hammond, Steven L. Good and Dr. Margot Weinstein to students of the Center.  The Legal Case Study, entitled "Auctioning United Homes Portfolio:  A Legal Case Study" was used in two LLM classes as course materials to help students understand the use of private auctions to sell real estate.  The Center hopes to raise funds to support production of additional Legal Case Studies on a broad range of topics.

The Real Estate Symposium issue of The John Marshall Law Review publishes cutting-edge articles solicited by the Center from the country's most distinguished professors and practitioners. These articles come from presentations on cutting-edge real estate law issues that are the focus of the Kratovil Conference on Real Estate Law & Practice.

The Center also hosts CLE programs and workshops of interest to the practicing bar and the real estate industry.