Speaker details

Biography

K. Scott Kohanowski serves as General Counsel of the Center for NYC Neighborhoods and its subsidiary, Sustainable Neighborhoods, a CDFI and charitable mortgage lender. He oversees a broad portfolio of legal, regulatory, governance, and operational matters supporting the organization’s mission to preserve and promote affordable homeownership across New York. The Center advances this mission through policy advocacy, homeowner services, and innovative charitable lending programs focused on foreclosure prevention, climate resiliency, home repair, first-time homeownership, and heirs’ property preservation. Previously, Scott directed the Homeowner Stability and LGBT Advocacy Projects at the NYC Bar Justice Center, where he trained and supervised pro bono and staff attorneys, represented distressed homeowners, and led law reform initiatives focused on housing stability and community preservation. His practice focuses on foreclosure and property law, community development lending, heirs’ property and tangled title resolution, deed theft prevention, and nonprofit governance, with a consistent emphasis on racial equity and neighborhood stabilization. Scott earned his B.A. in Portuguese and Spanish from the University of Minnesota and his J.D. from NYU School of Law. He began his legal career at Morrison & Foerster LLP before transitioning to public interest law. He currently serves on the NYC Bar Association’s Mortgage Foreclosure Task Force and Non-Profit Organizations Committee, as well as the New York Attorney General’s Deed Theft Task Force and the NYC Nonprofit Legal Services Foreclosure Prevention Task Force.