John Heilman
USC Gould School of Law

John Heilman is a long-time lecturer at USC Gould School of Law. He has taught Community Property at the law school for many years. He also teaches two courses in our LLM program: Topics in American Law and Introduction to American Legal Systems. He was voted  Adjunct Professor of the Year at the law school in 2008, 2010, and 2016.

Heilman is also an alumnus of USC. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He received a BS degree from Northwestern University. He moved to Southern California to attend USC Gould where he was a notes and articles editor of the Southern California Law Review. Heilman graduated from the law school in 1982. He came back to USC as a student to earn a MA in Public Administration in 2007 and subsequently a MA degree in Real Estate Development in 2009.

Heilman also teaches at Southwestern Law School. He has been named one of the Professors of the Year for the last five years at Southwestern.

In addition to teaching, Heilman is a long-time councilmember in the City of West Hollywood and served as mayor on eight previous occasions. He was actively involved in the incorporation of the city in 1984. Heilman was elected to the first City Council of West Hollywood in November 1984 and he has served on the City Council continuously since that time. He has served as Mayor of the city in 1985, 1990, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2006, 2010 and 2017.

Heilman has been an active member of the National League of Cities. He has served on the board of both the National League of Cities and the California League of Cities. He currently serves on the Legal Committee of the National League of Cities. He is a past board member of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and the Local Government Commission. He is also the past president of the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Local Officials Group and past co-chair of the International Network of Lesbian and Gay Officials. Heilman is also a board member of OutRight International, an international organization focusing on the legal rights of sexual minorities.

Heilman is a board member and immediate past president of the Jacaranda School, a school for children orphaned by AIDS in Malawi.
 

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

Los Angeles Times
May 11, 2022
Re: Emily Ryo

Emily Ryo was interviewed about how immigration shortfalls, like soaring housing prices, are fueling California’s population drop. “A whole assortment of the service sector area has been tremendously affected by a lack of immigrant labor that we haven’t really seen and is just really unprecedented,” she said. “Immigrant labor has been a huge part of the long-term home care sector, and a decline in the population in California has had a significant effect.”

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

Ariela Gross
March, 2022

“Becoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana,” Centre International de Recherches sur les Esclavages at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France.

Camille Gear Rich
March, 2022

“No More Boxes to Check: Imagining The Anti-Racist Law Firm,” NALP Annual Education Conference, New Orleans, LA.

Thomas D. Lyon
March, 2022

“Disclosure Among Child Abuse Victims” (with K. London and M. Eisen), Fourth Zoom Psychology and Law Symposium: Children in Legal Settings, Maastrict University, Maastricht, Netherlands.