Louise McKinney: advocate, activist, mentor.

• Author: Lipton, Judith P.
• Position: Case Western Reserve University School of Law professor - Testimonial

Professor Louise McKinney has worked tirelessly for those without meaningful access to the courts--locally, nationally, and internationally. She is a powerful and empowering woman who has guided by example. As she retires, it's important to reflect on her contributions to our law school and to her many communities.

Professor McKinney joined the clinical faculty in 1989 just after serving as the Director of the Clinical Education Programme, Department of Law of the University of Botswana. She's the first member of the law school faculty to be named a Fulbright Scholar. She taught clinical methodology and co-sponsored a student-run legal aid project at the University of Nairobi in 1998-1999 as a Fulbright Senior Scholar. From 1996 to 2000 Professor McKinney served as a consultant for law schools in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania through the African Law Initiative-Clinical Partnerships Project of the American Bar Association. Again in 2007-2008 Professor McKinney was named a Fulbright Scholar and spent the year at the University of Botswana in Gaborone upgrading the mandatory Clinical Education Program in collaboration with others in the Law Department and in the legal community.

Professor McKinney began her legal career at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, first as a staff attorney in the Downtown Neighborhood Office and then as a staff attorney and ultimately 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 horrendous conditions in the East Cleveland jail, again giving voice to the invisible and powerless. At the law school, she has 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...