Providing Hope for Disadvantaged Heirs’ Property Owners: The Movement to Secure Ownership and Generational Wealth

The University of Tulsa College of Law Presents the Buck Colbert Franklin Memorial Civil Rights Lecture featuring Thomas Mitchell

Monday, Oct. 19, 2026
5 p.m. Reception
6 p.m. Lecture

Thomas W. Mitchell is a professor at Boston College Law School where he serves as the founding director of the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights. He is a national expert on property issues facing disadvantaged communities and has been published widely. Professor Mitchell has engaged in extensive policy work, including serving as the principal drafter of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a model state statute designed to help disadvantaged families maintain their property and generational wealth. Thus far, twenty-seven states and other jurisdictions have enacted the UPHPA into law.

In 2020, Professor Mitchell was named a MacArthur Fellow, commonly referred to as the MacArthur Genius Grant, in recognition of the substantial impact his overall professional work has had in assisting disadvantaged, urban and rural property owners. In 2021, he was awarded the Howard University Award for Distinguished Postgraduate Achievement. In 2022, the American Bar Association’s Section of State, Local, and Tribal Government Law awarded him its Jefferson Fordham Advocacy Award. In addition, Professor Mitchell is a Uniform Law Commissioner and an American College of Real Estate Lawyers Fellow.

Professor Mitchell is a graduate of Amherst College, the Howard University School of Law, and the University of Wisconsin Law School where he also served as a William H. Hastie Fellow.

UTulsa Law offers one hour of CLE credit for members of the legal community at no cost.
This event is free and open to the public.

No RSVP required