Paul Birnberg
Paul Birnberg
Senior Housing Attorney
Email: paulb@homelinemn.org
Extension: x101
Paul Birnberg, Senior Housing Attorney, is HOME Line’s most experienced attorney, and is widely regarded as an expert in tenant/landlord law in Minnesota. Paul joined the staff full time in 1997 after two years as a contract attorney with HOME Line. Paul received his law degree from the University of Minnesota in 1992. Since joining HOME Line, he has advised over 11,000 tenants and has helped prevent over 600 evictions. In addition to his regular duties working representing individual tenants, he has helped develop the State Bar Association’s Model Lease, worked on the Reporters committee which modernized and reorganized the former Minnesota statutes on landlord tenant law then found in Minn. Stat. Chapters 504 and 566 into a more user-friendly Minn. Stat. Chapter 504B, and worked on a legislative committee that was charged with crafting state-based legislation dealing with foreclosures. In addition to giving frequent Constituting Legal Education Seminars (“CLEs”) on landlord-tenant law he regularly gives P.O.S.T. seminars to police on criminal aspects of landlord-tenant law.
EDUCATION
University of Minnesota Law School, J,D. Magna Cum Laude, 1992
Northwestern University, PhD in Biological Sciences, 1980
Northwestern University, M.A. in Teaching, 1973
University of Chicago, B.A. in Chemistry, with Honors, 1972
BAR ADMISSIONS
State of Minnesota, 1992
U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota, 1995
SELECTED LEGAL-COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
Bench and Bar Committee, Hennepin County Housing Court
Member (1994-present), Chair of Legislative Subcommittee (2006-present), led effort that resulted in a change to Minn. Stat. § 504B.361 to create a new Writ of Recovery that is pro-se user friendly (2007)
Ad-Hoc Housing-Court-Siting Committee, Hennepin County District Court
Charged with dealing with problems at the Brookdale, Ridgedale, and Southdale Courts, leading to consolidation of all housing cases at main housing court (2000-2001)
Hennepin County Bar Association,
Chair, Landlord/Tenant Committee (1994-1996)
Reporter, Chapter 504B (Landlord-Tenant Statutes Recodification), Minnesota Legislature (1999)
Foreclosure Task Force, Minnesota Legislature (2007-2008)
SELECTED CLE AND OTHER PRESENTATIONS
Landlord-Tenant Issues Faced by Police, P.O.S.T. seminar for police officers, 1-2 times per year (2001-present)
Ask the Attorney, Minnesota Multihousing Assn, 2006 and 2008
Pointers on Defending a Subsidized Housing Eviction Action, Ramsey County Bar Assn, 2004
Top Fifteen Ways A Tenant Can Assert the Right to Good Cause Lease Termination, Hennepin County Bar Assn, 1998
Technical Defenses to Unlawful Detainers and Their Policy Rationales, Hennepin County Bar Assn, 1996
HOME Line, CLE, Landlord-Tenant Law Training, 3 times per year, (1999-present)
Minnesota Institute of Legal Education, Chair 2001 & 2003, Landlord – Tenant Law CLE programs
Real Estate Institute, Plenary Session, New Residential Lease Form CLE (2000)
SELECTED LEGAL PUBLICATIONS
Paul Birnberg, Basics of Mortgage Foreclosure and Contract-for-Deed Cancellation for Tenants, HOME Line, (2009)
Paul R. Birnberg & Brenda Kiepert-Holthaus, Caretakers and Other “Unusual” Issues that Occur Quite Often in Eviction Cases, MILE (Jan. 29, 2003)
Mary Rose Geimer & Paul R. Birnberg, Minnesota Landlord/Tenant Law: Training Manual for the Police and Attorneys (2001)
David Werblow & Paul Birnberg, Due Process Denied: Handling of Hennepin County Eviction Cases at the Brookdale, Ridgedale, and Southdale Courts, (2000)
Paul R. Birnberg, Thomas Faulhaber, and Robert J. Hauer, Structured Settlements, in MDLA Release Deskbook 221 (Eric J. Magnuson ed. 1993)
EMPLOYMENT
Attorney, Community Action for Suburban Hennepin (1997-2001)
Attorney, Solo Practice, Brooklyn Center, MN (1993-1997)
Clerk, The Honorable Delila Pierce, Hennepin County District Court (1993)
Clerk and Attorney, Hauer, Fargione & Love (1991-1993)
Assistant Professor of Biology, St. John’s University-College of St. Benedict (1988-89)
Research Associate, University of Minnesota (1982-1988), Horticulture & Agronomy Departments
Research Associate, University of Illinois (1980-1982), Botany Department
