Debbie Bechtel: A Legal Career at the Intersection of Real Estate and Community

At the end of the Spring 2024 semester, Associate Professor of Clinical Law Emerita Debbie Bechtel retired after 27 years of teaching, mentoring, and building connections citywide. In an interview, she reflected on her career. 

When Professor Debbie Bechtel celebrated her retirement, many of the nearly 150 attendees attending an event in her honor praised Bechtel’s accomplishments as an educator who deeply influenced student careers, and her work as an affordable housing community advocate through the Corporate and Real Estate Clinic.      

As her colleague Professor David Reiss put it in his toast to Bechtel at the March 26, 2024, gathering: “There are people who make institutions strong, and Debbie is one of them. She did this by setting up dinners every semester for the adjunct real estate faculty, by connecting alums, and by spending a lot of time thinking about which students are looking for something and which alum might be a good match for those students. The immense amount of that kind of work that goes into building out a community—weaving an invisible web that connects people—is not always acknowledged.” 

Bechtel’s brief and modest remarks that evening were in keeping with her laser-sharp focus not on herself but on the community. Yet the tale of how she became one of New York City’s foremost legal experts on low-income co-operatives, is intriguing. It began with her first job, at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago where the work was extremely rewarding and covered the whole array of poverty law issues.   

“As a legal services attorney I was working with and immediately helping everyone with a litigation issue who walked in the door and qualified for free services,” Bechtel said. “In that neighborhood, there was a lot of landlord/tenant work, and some domestic violence cases.”  

Working with housing clients clicked for Bechtel, and when she moved from Chicago to New York City three years later, she joined the Community Development Legal Assistance Center and discovered her signature legal niche. 

It was 1983, and New York City real estate was on the rise, fueled by Wall Street and speculators, but it was far from the high-priced market of gleaming skyscraper apartment buildings and gentrified neighborhoods of today. NYC government was still grappling with the many buildings which landed in city ownership after being foreclosed on for real estate tax arrears in the 1970s. One solution was to turn some buildings into co-ops and transfer them to residents at $250 a unit, shifting upkeep and tax liability to the residents.  Low-income tenants presented with this opportunity needed free or low-cost lawyers who could become experts in these new transactions.  Bechtel quickly learned the nuts and bolts of real estate law, such as how to handle closings and building loans, leaving her litigator days behind.   

“There was rehabilitation work to do and there were many challenges, but the purchase price was low and the opportunity to become homeowners was enticing.” Bechtel said.  

After serving several years as the director of the Community Development Legal Assistance Center, Bechtel joined Brooklyn Law School as a professor teaching in the civil practice externship. Her experience with a few externship students led to the launch of the in-house Corporate and Real Estate Clinic in 1997. Professor Stacy Caplow, who was then leading the clinic program, recognized the value in teaching clinic students transactional work, which was unusual in clinic programs at the time. Bechtel agreed. “At least half of our graduates are going to do transactional work, they’re not all going to do litigation,” she said.  

Some of the co-ops formed in the 1980s and 1990s were struggling financially and organizationally, leading to an increased demand for free legal services. These low-income co-ops were the perfect clients to teach students real estate work. Since most co-ops are set up as business corporations, students delved into the intricacies of New York State business corporation law, and learned how a corporation operates. They also handled loan closings, board of director elections, and unit sales, while supporting the volunteer board members with the challenges they faced.  

While the clinic helped residential communities citywide, it also created a robust community at Brooklyn Law School. Beloved by students, Bechtel famously stayed in touch with graduates, helping them find careers through her ever-expanding network of law firms and nonprofit contacts. She celebrated milestones, too. When the clinic reached its 15th year, former students gathered for a reunion in Geraldo’s where they celebrated being part of a unique and forward-thinking community, and the idea “that we should stay connected,” Bechtel said. An expanded group gathered again for a 20th reunion.  

In addition to teaching the in-house clinic where students represented clients under her supervision, Bechtel started a specialized Real Estate and Community Development Externship course around 2010. She worked with students to find external placements with law firms, real estate developers, government agencies and nonprofit groups.  “The whole idea of placing students in law firms for externship credit was somewhat new when I started doing it 10 to 15 years ago,” she said. Her goal was to offer students real estate experience from a variety of perspectives. “Through a combination of hosting events where alumni came back to BLS, having them return to speak to classes, and asking them to supervise externs, the program also provided an opportunity for alums who want to pay it forward in a unique way.” 

For her affordable housing work, Bechtel was honored by the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB) as a “Housing Hero” in 2017. In November 2020 she won the Sondra Roach Community Partnership Award by Habitat for Humanity New York City for her work in helping save homes for 16 families who lived at 2178 Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn from a foreclosure and preserving the affordability of their building. Students of the clinic and former students of Bechtel, including some who were part of a pro bono effort through Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel’s bankruptcy department, labored on the case for six years. (Full story here.)

Bechtel also found herself in the role of recruiter of adjunct professors for the Law School, often finding skilled teachers through her involvement with organizations such as the New York State Bar Association where she currently serves on the executive committee of the Real Property Law Section.   

The role of connector and friend was not lost on colleagues who spoke at her retirement celebration. Associate Dean for Academic and Student Success and Associate Professor of Clinical Law Karen Porter noted that it was a signature move for Bechtel to turn her retirement gathering, which could have been a solemn milestone, into a party.  

“I can’t remember the first time I met Debbie, but I do know that she has always been at the center of my experience of Brooklyn Law School,” Porter said. “More than any single person, she made the law school home. I know this is true not only for me but for so many others regardless of status, position, or politics.” 

Since retiring, Bechtel and her husband have been spending time at their Vermont home, enjoying visits from their two grown children and tending their pet sheep and gardens, but she remains on the grid of New York City’s affordable housing scene by serving on the board of directors for UHAB and doing volunteer work for low-income co-ops. She is watching the Brooklyn Law School clinics program with pride and welcomed the addition of new Assistant Professor Michael Haber, who will direct the Law School’s Community Development and Movement Infrastructure Clinic.  

“I am extremely excited that Mike has come to Brooklyn. I think he’s going to be great,” Bechtel said.