Scherer is the Executive Director of Legal Services for New York City where he was Director of the Legal Support Unit from 1996 to 2001, Housing Coordinator from 1983 to 1993, and worked on special projects from 1993 to 1996. He is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, where he teaches land use. Earlier, he was a staff attorney and then a senior attorney at Bronx Legal Services. From 1989 to 1996, he taught housing law at CUNY Law School and from 1988 to 1992 he co-taught a seminar in Housing Policy and Law at NYU Law School.

Mr. Scherer has frequently appeared as a lecturer at academic, community, and bar association seminars. He is also a frequent legal consultant to the media on New York landlord-tenant issues. He has written for a variety of legal and other publications including the Harvard Civil Rights Liberties Law Review, the International Review of Contemporary Law, the New York Law Journal, and the Encyclopedia of Housing, and has authored and co-authored training materials and reports on housing issues.

His professional activities include membership on the boards of directors and advisory boards of housing and civic organizations and committees of the New York State Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the National Lawyers Guild. He is a graduate of NYU Law School.