Julia Devanthéry
Attorney and Lecturer on Law, Housing Law Clinic; Director, Housing Justice for Survivors Project
Julia Devanthéry has co-taught the Housing Law Clinic at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School since 2015. The Housing Clinic represents low-income tenants in summary process eviction cases, ensuring that families and vulnerable individuals are not rendered homeless.
In 2017, Julia founded the Housing Justice for Survivors Project in which she trains clinical law students to represent tenants who are facing housing instability due to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Students under Julia’s supervision provide direct client representation, develop and litigate impact litigation, conduct housing rights trainings for community members and advocates, and engage in local, state, and federal law reform efforts aimed at improving the housing rights of survivors. Julia and her students represented the tenant in BHA v. Y.A., 482 Mass. 240 (2019), in which the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed a domestic violence survivor’s right to raise the Violence Against Women Act defense to a non-payment of rent eviction.
Julia is the author of Boston Housing Authority v. Y.A., 482 Mass. 240 (2019): SJC Clarifies VAWA Defenses in Eviction Cases, Early Lease Termination Under G.L. c. 186 s 24: An Essential Escape Route for Tenants Who are Facing Domestic Violence Sexual Assault or Stalking and The Supreme Judicial Court’s Decision in Beacon Residential v. R.P. Gives Survivors of Domestic Violence Their Day in Housing Court, all published in the Boston Bar Journal. She is also the co-author of the Evictions chapter in Legal Tactics: Tenants Rights in Massachusetts.
In addition to clinical teaching, Julia has also worked at the ACLU of Southern California where she fought to safeguard the civil rights of people experiencing homelessness and to advance the right to safe, affordable housing for all. Julia is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and California. She received her juris doctor from Northeastern University School of Law, and she graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in Sociology.