Thomas Mitchell

MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, Thomas W. Mitchell is working to reform laws and develop policy solutions to address the mechanisms by which Black and other disadvantaged American families have been deprived of their land, homes, and real estate wealth. Mitchell served as the principal drafter of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA) of 2010. The UPHPA’s three principal reforms—a co-owner buyout provision, guidance for courts to apply both economic and non-economic considerations in their deliberations about how to resolve a partition action, and an innovative sales procedure designed to produce prices approximating a property’s fair market value—will enable more families to avoid involuntary and predatory disposition of their real estate. Mitchell is the lead, co-editor (and a contributing author) of a book the American Bar Association entitled, Heirs' Property and the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act: Challenges, Solutions, and Historic Reform.