Heather K. Way

Heather Way is a Clinical Professor at Texas Law where she directs the Law School’s Housing Policy Clinic and teaches in the Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic. A national expert in affordable housing and community development law, her work focuses on advancing housing justice, opening paths to economic opportunity, and fostering equitable and inclusive communities. 

Professor Way’s work has shaped numerous high-impact legal reforms that advance housing stability and close critical gaps in housing policy, ensuring greater accountability and fairness in housing practices that impact low- and moderate-income families. Her recent projects include curbing predatory fees in rental housing and securing affordable housing requirements in tax-subsidized housing developments.

Professor Way is a leading authority on heirs’ property, a form of land ownership passed down across generations which disproportionately impacts African-American families. Her most recent scholarship has revealed the prevalence and unique challenges of heirs’ property in urban areas, the disproportionate risks of property tax foreclosure, and pervasive legal barriers preventing families from accessing critical property tax relief and disaster recovery aid. These findings have informed significant legal reforms, including legislation expanding heirs’ property homeowners’ access to homestead exemptions.

Professor Way serves on the governing committee of American Bar Association’s Affordable Housing and Community Development Forum and co-chairs the Forum’s Community Development Practitioners and Legal Educators Practice Group. Previously, Professor Way served as an advisor to the Uniform Law Commission’s Tenancy in Common Ownership Default Rules Drafting Committee. She founded the Uprooted Project, an initiative providing tools to address displacement in gentrifying neighborhoods and co-authored Real Property for the Real World, a book featuring hands-on case studies for property law students. A frequent media commentator, she has been interviewed by media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, and NPR.

After graduating from The University of Texas School of Law, where she was Grand Chancellor and co-founded the Public Interest Law Association, Professor Way clerked for the Honorable William Wayne Justice of the Eastern District of Texas and served as a Skadden Fellow at Legal Aid of Central Texas, representing low-income tenants and community organizations. She later co-founded and directed Texas Community Building with Attorney Resources (Texas C-BAR), a statewide initiative delivering pro bono transactional legal services to community organizations.