Patrice J. Harris is the General Counsel and Vice President of The Community Builders, Inc. (TCB). Based in Boston and Washington, D.C., Patrice is responsible for developing the organization’s legal and risk management strategies around development, asset management, property management, and other operations and ensuring legal compliance. Patrice works closely with TCB’s president and CEO, board of directors, legal group, senior leadership, and corporate and operations staff, advising on a wide variety of legal and business issues.

Before joining TCB, Patrice was a partner in the Affordable Housing Group at Nixon Peabody LLP, where she served as developer’s counsel on new construction and the acquisition and rehabilitation, of public and private-financed affordable housing projects. She has extensive experience with federal, state, and local government finance programs for multifamily rental housing, including tax-exempt bond financing, low-income housing tax credit syndication, FHA multifamily mortgage insurance, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities, Section 236 decoupling transactions, HOPE VI funds, and Section 8 subsidies. Prior to joining Nixon Peabody, Patrice served as an associate at DLA Piper US LLP in its Chicago, Illinois and Washington, D.C. offices.

Patrice began her legal career as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the Office of Assisted Housing at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. She also served in HUD’s Office of General Counsel and the Departmental Enforcement Center in the HUD Midwest Regional office in Chicago, Illinois

Patrice received a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center, a Master of Laws in real estate from University of Illinois Chicago’s John Marshall Law School, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Stanford University. She is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association, the Maryland Bar Association, the Illinois Bar Association and the American Bar Association.