About

Keeshea Turner Roberts is an Assistant Professor of Law at Delaware Law School. Professor Turner Roberts teaches Family Law, Civil Procedure and Poverty Law.  Professor Turner Roberts received a B.A. in History from Hollins University (formerly Hollins College) in 1996. Prior to law school, she worked as a family/child caseworker and court advocate at the YWCA-Domestic Violence Prevention Program (DVPP) in Lynchburg, Virginia.  DVPP’s mission is to provide support to survivors of domestic violence and work towards the reduction of family violence.  She received her J.D. and a Certificate in Public Policy from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law in 2002.

Following graduation from law school, Professor Turner Roberts worked in various legal settings including clerking for four judges on the Superior Court for the District of Columbia, and litigating family and public benefits cases on behalf of indigent D.C. residents at Neighborhood Legal Services Program (NLSP). While at NLSP, she rose through the ranks from temporary staff attorney to managing attorney for a neighborhood office. Professor Turner Roberts was a sought-after family law and practice expert and was a frequent instructor and guest lecturer at D.C. area law schools and other D.C. Bar related community education programs. In 2017, she successfully graduated from the DC Bar’s John Payton Leadership Academy. This academy provides DC Bar members with an intensive training program to develop and sharpen the necessary skills to be successful leaders of the Bar throughout their careers. 

In 2017, Professor Turner Roberts ventured into academia.  She began the journey by working at Rising for Justice (formerly DC Law Students in Court) as a supervising attorney in the Criminal and later the Housing Advocacy and Litigation Clinics.  Since 1969, Rising for Justice’s (RFJ) mission has been to leverage the collective forces of students and experienced advocates to achieve justice for all.  At RFJ, Professor Turner Roberts taught students housing and criminal law practice, as well as supervised the litigation of cases in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia.  In addition to her duties as a supervising attorney, she was the co-director of the Civil Protection Order Project (CPOP).  CPOP was the brainchild of Moses Cook, the former Executive Director of RFJ, and Professor Turner Roberts.  CPOP is the first program of its kind that provides litigation and mediation services for respondents (also called “defendants” in most jurisdictions) in domestic violence cases.  Prior to joining the faculty at Delaware Law School, Professor Turner Roberts taught a Fair Housing Clinic Seminar and co-directed the Clinic at the Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. 

Professor Turner Roberts’ research interests includes empirical and theoretical work on state civil courts and judges; access to justice; the relationship between law, civil courts, and structural inequality; legal design; and legal regulatory innovation. For her empirical research concerning the benefits of respondents having access to counsel in civil protection order cases, Professor Turner Roberts was named a Bellow Scholar by the Association of American Law Schools’ Committee on Lawyering in the Public Interest in 2021. She also writes articles that examine the experiences of African Americans with the law, such as anti-racism and legal education; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the legal profession; Critical Race Theory (CRT); gentrification and housing; and reparations.

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