Lawrence Wood is a nationwide leader in housing law, renowned for his commitment to housing justice and the decades of positive influence he has had on the legal aid community. Larry has spent over 30 years representing Chicago-area tenants facing eviction, discrimination, and unsafe housing conditions. In 2021, he shifted his focus from direct representation at Legal Aid Chicago to high-impact class action lawsuits and policy advocacy at Legal Action Chicago, pursuing systemic solutions to housing inequality in Chicago and beyond.
Throughout his career, Larry has played a leading role in shaping housing law for the better. He is a meticulous litigator, crafting numerous appellate wins establishing good precedent for low-income tenants—and, just as importantly, avoiding the creation of bad precedent. Larry is also creative. In Oliver v. Chicago Housing Authority, Larry tackled a problem that had stymied housing advocates for years, achieving a settlement that completely changed an illegal CHA policy and awarded retroactive rent credits to affected class members. In reaching this settlement, Larry created a blueprint that helped others around the nation win similar cases against public housing agencies.
Though Larry’s career centers on litigation and policy work, his impact extends well beyond his clients and has shaped the housing justice community in Chicago and across the country. Larry is a mentor to generations of students and housing attorneys and freely shares his expertise on housing justice and legal aid listservs nationwide. Larry also contributes to the bench book referred to as “CliffsNotes for eviction judges” and, as a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, authored a 400-page housing law manual that is considered a staple for new lawyers and law student clinicians alike.
It is hard to overstate the impact that Larry’s unwavering commitment to housing justice has had on the legal aid community and, most importantly, on the low-income tenants that he fights for. The depth and breadth of Larry’s work and his vast footprint of impact underscore that he is the quintessential recipient of the Thomas H. Morsch Award.