Heather K. Way

Heather Way is a Clinical Professor at Texas Law, where she directs the 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, expanding economic opportunity, and fostering equitable and inclusive communities. 

Professor Way's work has helped shape high-impact legal reforms that strengthen housing stability and close critical gaps in housing policy affecting low- and moderate-income families. Her recent projects with law students have addressed issues such as curbing junk fees in rental housing and advancing equity in property tax systems.

She is a leading authority on heirs’ property, a form of land ownership passed down across generations that 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 that limit access to tax relief and disaster recovery aid. These findings have informed significant legal reforms, including legislation expanding access to homestead exemptions for heirs' property homeowners.

Professor Way serves on the governing committee of the American Bar Association’s Affordable Housing and Community Development Forum and co-chairs the Forum’s Community Development Practitioners and Legal Educators Practice Group. She previously 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. She is also the co-author of 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 The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, NPR, and other outlets.

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 then 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 providing pro bono transactional legal services to community organizations.