About Professor Schaffzin

Daniel M. Schaffzin is an Associate Professor of Law, a Cecil C. Humphreys Professor, and the Director of the Neighborhood Preservation Clinic at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.  Professor Schaffzin joined the Memphis Law faculty in 2009 and has led the development of the Law School’s Clinic and Externship courses since 2011.  Currently, Professor Schaffzin directs and teaches the Neighborhood Preservation Clinic and the Externship Course.  He also teaches Civil Procedure I and II.

Professor Schaffzin has been a leader in the national clinical teaching community for more than a decade.  He has served as both the president of the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA), the largest association of law professors in the country, and on the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law School’s (AALS) Clinical Section.  Additionally, he has served on numerous CLEA and AALS committees and on planning committees for the  annual AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education, the biennial Externships Conference, the Southern Clinical Conference, and the CLEA and AALS New Clinicians Conferences.  

Professor Schaffzin’s recent advocacy and scholarship have focused on collaborative approaches for addressing vacant, abandoned, and distressed properties.  In addition to his Clinic casework, he serves as faculty for the Strategic Code Enforcement Management Academy, which he helped to found in 2017, and on both the Memphis-Shelby County Joint Mayors’ Environmental Team and the Blight Elimination Steering Team.  Professor Schaffzin’s articles on collaborative strategies for addressing problem properties have appeared in the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy and the ABA Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development, and he continues to be an active presenter locally and nationally on related topics.

Professor Schaffzin earned his Bachelor of Arts degree (magna cum laude) from Temple University and his J.D. (cum laude) from Temple University School of Law.  Following law school, he worked as an associate at Pepper Hamilton LLP in Philadelphia before joining GlaxoSmithKline as Counsel in the pharmaceutical company's U.S. Legal Operations group.  In 2007, Professor Schaffzin began teaching as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law, where he instructed the school's Housing and Employment Litigation Clinic.  

Education

J.D. Temple University, 2000 (cum laude); B.A., Temple University, Journalism (magna cum laude), 1996.

Admitted

Tennessee, Pennsylvania (inactive), New Jersey (retired), North Dakota (inactive).

Experience

Associate Professor of Law and Director of Experiential Learning, University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law (September 2017-Present); Assistant Professor of Law and Director of Experiential Learning, University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law (January 2011-August 2017); Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law (August 2009-December 2010); Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, University of North Dakota School of Law (August 2007-May 2009); Counsel, GlaxoSmithKline (2005-2007); Associate, Pepper Hamilton LLP (2000-2005).

Courses Taught

Current Courses: Neighborhood Preservation Clinic, Civil Procedure I and II, Advanced Criminal Prosecution (Intersession Course)

Other Courses Taught: Civil Litigation Clinic, Housing Adjudication Clinic, Trial Advocacy, Contracts I and II

Publications

Ten Years of Fighting Blighted Property in Memphis: How Innovative Litigation Inspired Systems Change and a Local Culture of Collaboration to Resolve Vacant and Abandoned Properties, 25 J. AFFORDABLE HOUSING & COMMUN. DEV. L. 347 (2017) (with S. Barlow and B. Williams).

(B)light at the End of the Tunnel? How a City's Need to Fight Vacant and Abandoned Properties Gave Rise to a Law School Clinic Like No Other, 52 WASH. U. J. L. & POL'Y 115 (2016).

Fostering a Culture of Solutions: An Introduction to the Urban Revitalization Symposium Issue, 46 U. MEM. L. REV. 793 (2016) (by invitation).

Delivering Effective Education in Externship Programs in BUILDING ON BEST PRACTICES: TRANSFORMING LEGAL EDUCATION IN A CHANGING WORLD (Carolina Press 2015) (with C. Kaas, C. Batt, D. Baumann).

So Why Not an Experiential Law School . . . Starting With Reflection in the First Year?, 7 ELON L. REV. 383 (March 2015) (by invitation).

Teamwork: Doctors and Lawyers Working Together Could Be Cure for Many, 51 TENN. B. J. 12 (Jan. 2015) (with E. Lay, C. McDaniel, L. Mutrie, A. Seamon, L. Seely, E. Todaro).

Warning! Lawyer Advertising May Be Hazardous to Your Health: A Call to Limit Commercial Solicitation of Clients in Pharmaceutical Litigation, 8 CHARLESTON L. REV. 319 (Winter 2013- 14) (by invitation), reprinted in 63 DEFENSE L. J. 3 (2014).

Preaching to the Trier: Why Judicial Understanding of Law School Clinics is Essential to Continued Progress in Legal Education, 17 CLINICAL L. REV. 515 (2011) (with M. Jackson).

Landlord Weapon or Tenant Shield? A Proposal to Reform North Dakota's Residential Security Deposit Statute, 85 N.D. L. REV. 251 (2009) (Lead article).