The Case Western Reserve University School of Law community mourns the passing of retired law professor Louise McKinney, who died on Tuesday, March 18.
McKinney joined the clinical faculty in 1989 after serving as the Director of the Clinical Education Programme at the University of Botswana. She was the first member of the law school faculty to be named a Fulbright Scholar, and taught clinical methodology and co-sponsored a student-run legal aid project at the University of Nairobi in 1998-99 as a Fulbright Senior Scholar. From 1996 to 2000, McKinney served as a law school consultant for universities and colleges in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania through the African Law Initiative-Clinical Partnerships Project of the American Bar Association. In 2007-08, McKinney was again named a Fulbright Scholar and spent the year at the University of Botswana in Gaborone.
McKinney began her legal career at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, first as a staff attorney and then as the director of the Bar Advocacy Project. She represented group homes and helped establish the right for disabled residents to move into neighborhoods with the highest quality of life. She participated in the lawsuit to address the conditions of the East Cleveland jail, again giving voice to the invisible and powerless.
At the law school, where McKinney joined the Case Western Reserve University Law Clinic, she championed loan forgiveness and worked to enable students with high debt to take public interest jobs. She worked with Eve Biskind to create the Biskind Fellowships, which also encouraged students to work in the public interest. She taught poverty law, making sure that focus was a prominent part of the curriculum. In recognition of her contributions, former students chose her for the Law Alumni Association’s distinguished teacher award in 2006.
On her retirement in 2012, the Law Review published several tributes written by colleagues who described McKinney as an “advocate, activist, mentor” and commend “her grace, dedication, warmth, humor and humanity.” Thomas F. Geraghty wrote that “Louise is known for her knowledge, skill and commitment and [we] are grateful for her generosity and friendship.”