Meet Your Instructor (Influencer!)
I am your instructor here on the Tenant Learning Platform, Michelle Itkowitz. I am also a founder of the Tenant Learning Platform.
I have been a landlord and tenant litigator and consultant in New York City for over twenty-five years. I represent tenants and landlords in residential and commercial landlord and tenant disputes and projects. I have always marketed my law practice via content marketing; I never advertise. For example, in 2017-2018, I had 21 speaking engagements on landlord and tenant law, 14 of those lectures were accredited Continuing Education classes where I taught other lawyers, appraisers, and bankers about landlord and tenant law in New York City. In 2020, I did a ton of teaching about tenant’s rights during the Pandemic. In 2021-2022, I became one of three co-authors of the New York State Bar Association’s nearly 500-page treatise New York Residential Landlord-Tenant Law and Procedure. In addition to completing an update of the book in 2023, I started the very popular Tenant Law Podcast on Spotify.
Because I have so much content out there, hundreds of residential tenants started finding me and I realized how desperately tenants need accurate and actionable information about their legal rights. It struck me that many people do not so much need a lawyer to get them out of trouble, as they need good information to keep them out of trouble. Thus, I invented this platform, where I think I have created some of the finest content of my career.
I have a very small law firm and cannot be everyone’s lawyer. Via the Tenant Learning Platform, however, I can be many people’s teacher. I like to think of myself as a “landlord and tenant media influencer”. That is like a social media influencer, but instead of keeping you up to date on trendy travel destinations and scented candles, I keep you informed about New York City landlord and tenant law. Hey…as I write this, over 23,000 people have “liked” my work on TikTok.
Because I am a lawyer, and the founder of my eponymous law firm, Itkowitz PLLC, I am ethically obligated to say that all this may be considered legal advertising. But, if this site is legal advertising, it is terrible. It is terrible because nobody would do all this work for a couple of cases. The other problem is simply that I am not an economic match for most residential tenants at this point in my career journey; I am expensive. So as legal advertising, this website is terrible. But hopefully as a resource for people who very much need information relevant to their housing, this website is useful.
Look, NYC – the law belongs to you. But your ownership of the law is only as great as your understanding of the law. So, let’s learn, to live better!
Contact
In light of the foregoing, please do not contact me via the Tenant Learning Platform for legal advice. If you really want to contact me for legal advice, then do it through my law firm. There are two good reasons to contact me via the Tenant Learning Platform. First, contact me here if you are in charge of a human resources department, or some other organization, and you are interested in contracting with us to create custom content for your business or group. Second, contact me here if you are a residential tenant who would like to have your question answered in a general way (which will not be legal advice) on the Tenant Law Podcast. For those two types of questions you may contact me at [email protected].
