Profile

Heading the firm's Residential Property Management practice, Jay Harris is a highly experienced rental housing and data privacy attorney who counsels on commercial agreements, multistate regulatory compliance, government affairs advocacy, and commercial litigation matters.

He advises rental housing operators, property technology vendors, and trade groups on legal matters across the renter life cycle:

• Marketing and Leasing
• Data Privacy, Safeguards, and Artificial Intelligence
• Resident Screening and Consumer Reporting
• Billing and Payments
• Tenant Risk Protection (Security Deposits, Renters' Insurance)
• Consumer Communications and Debt Collections
• Investment Due Diligence

Clients rely on Jay for his business-aware legal counsel, which enables clients to stay ahead of complex regulatory issues. A former business leader and general counsel, Jay's ability to anticipate and solve business compliance obligations is well-honed. He was General Counsel for two national tenant screening firms, where he directed litigation defense and enterprise compliance programs, and General Counsel for a national debt collections agency, where he led the adoption of the firm's first enterprise compliance program. As a business leader, he also ran a national public records provider with full profit/loss responsibility.

Jay has specialized in providing legal, strategic, and practical advice about rental property management and data technology issues for decades.

He has served as expert regulatory counsel and government affairs lead on property management issues for the apartment industry's leading trade groups, where he advised senior management of the industry's leading operators, vendors, lenders, and developers. He has advised rental industry task forces on data standards for accounts receivable and collections, commercial insurance, and human resources. As an advocate, he headed the industry's rent control pre-emption project.

Jay speaks frequently at industry events and runs the Residential Property Management webinar series.

He is admitted to practice in Virginia and Washington, DC. He received his law degree from George Mason University School of Law (Scalia Law) and graduated from The Johns Hopkins University.

When he is not practicing law, he can be found playing music and singing, biking, and traveling with his family. He recently completed a decade of service as a Board Member of True Ground Housing Partners, a non-profit affordable housing developer.