Keeshea Turner Roberts | Widener

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Keeshea

Turner Roberts

Assistant Professor of Law

B.A., Hollins University
J.D., Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law

Office Number 308

Contact

Email: klturner@widener.edu

Phone:302.477.2156

About Publications CV

About

Keeshea Turner Roberts is an Assistant Professor of Law at Delaware Law School, where she teaches Family Law, Family Law Skills, Civil Procedure, and Poverty Law. She received her B.A. in History from Hollins University and her J.D., with a Certificate in Public Policy, from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.

Before entering academia, Professor Turner Roberts represented indigent clients in family, public benefits, and domestic violence cases in the District of Columbia, including as managing attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services Program. She also clerked for four judges on the D.C. Superior Court and completed the DC Bar’s John Payton Leadership Academy. In her academic career, she has supervised students in Criminal and Housing Advocacy Clinics and co-directed the Civil Protection Order Project (CPOP), the first program offering litigation and mediation services for respondents in domestic violence cases. She previously taught and co-directed the Fair Housing Clinic at Howard University School of Law.

Professor Turner Roberts’ research centers on marginalized families in family law, particularly Black and Brown single mothers and other underrepresented caregivers. She examines how civil courts, public benefits systems, and domestic violence policies intersect with structural inequality and access to justice, drawing on legal vulnerability theory to analyze how law can produce and intensify precarity. She has written on Critical Race Theory, diversity and inclusion in legal education, anti-racism in law, gentrification, and reparations. In 2021, she was named a Bellow Scholar by the Association of American Law Schools for her empirical research on the benefits of counsel for respondents in civil protection order cases.

Professor Turner Roberts is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.

Publications

Publications on SSRN

Google Scholar

Law Review Articles & Essays

Set Up to Fail: Systemic Barriers that Prevent Respondents from Complying with Civil Protection Orders, ____ Family Law Quarterly ______ (forthcoming 2025)

Indoctrination at its Apex: 'Stop Woke Act' and its Ramifications on Law Schools and Professors of Color, 30 Widener L. Rev. 25 (2024).

Martin V. PGA Tour: Applicability of the ADA in Professional Sports, 8 Willamette Sports L.J. (2011)

Works-In-Progress

Whiteness as Injury: Race-Neutral Harms and the Erasure of Racialized Injury in Standing Doctrine

Marriage as Mandate: Project 2025 and the Racialized Regulation of Single Mothers

Policing Gender, Silencing Truth: Epistemic and Structural Harms in Civil Protection Order Law

State of Delaware: People of African Descent (Black) Audit Project - Executive Summary

Book Chapters

Jessica Dixon Weaver, Jamie A. Abrams, and Keeshea Turner Roberts's Family Law Simulations: Bridge to Practice, 2nd Edition, West Academic, December 2025.

Building A Law School, Legal Academy, and Legal Profession, Vol. 5: Teaching and Learning: Words Matter, UC Davis Publishing (forthcoming 2026).

Short Articles, Testimony, and Public Comments

Human Rights Heroes: DEI Workers, Human Rights Magazine, Vol. 50, No. 2, March 2025

Invisible within the Invisible: Explaining Intersectional Marginalization, Human Rights Magazine, Vol. 50, No. 2, March 2025

Reparations Can Mitigate Wealth Inequity, American Bar Association, Human Rights Magazine, Vol. 48, No. 2, January 2023.

Testimony for Council of the District of Columbia Re: The Pro Bono Legal Representation Expansion Amendment Act of 2021, October 27, 2021.

Testimony for Council of the District of Columbia Re: Access to Justice Initiative FY2022, June 11, 2021.

Comment on the Initial Filing Fees for Landlord and Tenant Actions, April 12, 2021 (prepared in collaboration with Fair Housing students).

A Looming Eviction Tidal Wave Brings Pro Bono Opportunities for New Lawyers, American Bar Association, Young Lawyers Division, After the Bar, December 22, 2020

Law Schools Push to Require Anti-Racism Training and Courses, American Bar Association, Human Rights Magazine, Vol. 46, No. 1, December 2020

Testimony for Council of the District of Columbia Re: Michael A. Stoops Anti-Discrimination Act of 2019, October 27, 2020 (prepared in collaboration with Fair Housing students).

Testimony for Council of the District of Columbia Re: Fair Tenant Screening Act of 2019, October 27, 2020 (prepared in collaboration with Fair Housing students).

Comment on Docket No.FR-6152-P-01, RIN 2506-AC53, Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Proposed Rule Change to the Equal Access Rule, “Making Admission or Placement Determinations Based on Sex in Facilities Under Community Planning and Development Housing Programs,” September 21, 2020 (prepared in collaboration with Fair Housing students).

Comment on Docket No. FR-6123-P-02, Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Proposed Rule Change to the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Requirement, March 16, 2020 (prepared in collaboration with Civil Rights and Fair Housing students).

Comment on Docket No.FR-6111-P-02, Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Proposed Change to the Disparate Impact Standard, October 23, 2019 (prepared in collaboration with Civil Rights and Fair Housing Clinic students).

Media

Invisible within the Invisible: Why Intersectionality is Not Optional, Ted-X Widener University, October 2, 2025

Intra-Community Inequities: Perspectives from Featured Authors of the Marginalized within Marginalized Communities, American Bar Association Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice, May 5, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIs1ek-odC4

Winnipeg cyclist’s family settles in fatal South Dakota truck crash, Winnipeg Free Press, April 25, 2025, https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2025/04/25/winnipeg-cyclists-family-settles-in-fatal-south-dakota-truck-crash

The Black Audit Project, DETV, May 16, 2024, https://detvch.com/detvs-the-agenda-delaware-law-school-black-audit-project/

CV

Keesha Turner Roberts CV

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