Our Practice
R&C serves as litigation counsel for clients such as public housing authorities, private developers, for-profit and nonprofit organizations, and governmental agencies in matters ranging from federal housing laws and regulations, general administrative law, real estate development, zoning, land use, and subdivision issues. Our attorneys have experience representing parties in federal court litigation in more than 20 federal court districts throughout the country, located in 18 states and the District of Columbia, in the United States Courts of Appeal for the Sixth, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Circuits and in the United States Supreme Court. We have also served as counsel to public housing receiverships in Chester, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; the District of Columbia; and Kansas City, Missouri.
Our Work
Our Litigation practice takes a broad view of dispute resolution. When a dispute arises, we seek the most favorable and efficient solution for our clients, through negotiation, mediation, arbitration, litigation, and representation before governmental entities and regulatory bodies. Thus, we represent clients in all forums including administrative hearings and administrative law judge appeals before both HUD and other federal agencies, as well as in GAO protests and routinely represent clients on zoning, land use and subdivision hearings and appeals, tax appeals and NIMBY matters. Our litigation group also assists clients in identifying areas of potential future litigation vulnerability and assists clients in addressing those vulnerabilities where possible through the development of new policies, rules and procedures, as well as training.
Why R&C?
R&C brings a uniquely qualified team approach to dispute matters including litigation, relying on both its substantive expertise in virtually all aspects of public housing work and its broad general litigation experience. When contemplating or representing housing authority clients or others in litigation, R&C’s litigation teams do not need to “learn” the controlling substantive law from scratch—they need only turn to the vast historical expertise which is already involved in the matter in the case of an ongoing R&C client, or which is, literally, “right across the hall” if the litigation matter is new to R&C. R&C has long worked with clients in their dealings with the HUD OIG which has involved defending clients in public housing program audits, housing choice voucher program audits, HOME funds audits and more. Through our vast experience with the OIG we have learned effective methods of negotiating with auditors, and more importantly working with the field offices in implementing the OIG’s recommendations. For non-public housing authority clients, R&C’s litigation team experience with various areas of federal administrative law brings a wealth of knowledge to any potential dispute in federal court and we are well positioned to represent non-profits and quasi-public agencies in various areas of federal law because we understand the challenges these organizations face when facing the choice of whether to enter litigation. Thus, we attempt to avoid litigation when possible, and we understand that most adversarial proceedings that our clients face are resolved in a forum other than a courtroom.