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Obituaries

Plane crash victims include 2 Wilkinson Stekloff associates, civil rights attorney set to join law faculty

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 3, 2025, 10:53 am CST

Victims of the Washington, D.C., plane crash Jan. 29 include two Wilkinson Stekloff associates and a civil rights lawyer planning to join the faculty of the Howard University School of Law this fall.

The associates were Sarah Lee Best and Elizabeth Keys, according to the Wilkinson Stekloff website. They were both 33 years old; Keys died on her birthday. The civil rights attorney was 30-year-old Kiah Duggins, according to her employer, the Civil Rights Corps, and an obituary by her alma mater, Harvard Law School.

Among publications with coverage are Law360, Original Jurisdiction, Law.com (here and here), People and the Wall Street Journal.

While at Harvard Law School, Duggins helped protect families from COVID-19 pandemic evictions as president of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. According to John Goldberg, the dean of Harvard Law School, Duggins was known for optimism, kindness and empathy.

“As a student and lawyer, Kiah was known for her boundless enthusiasm for advancing justice for the most vulnerable, and for building community,” Goldberg wrote.

Before joining the Civil Rights Corp, Duggins worked with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the law firm Neufeld, Scheck & Brustin. At the Civil Rights Corps, Duggins challenged unconstitutional policing and money bail practices.

She was also a former Miss Kansas contestant and a graduate of Wichita State University. During her undergrad years, she was a White House intern working for former first lady Michelle Obama, according to Law.com.

Best and Keys were returning to Washington, D.C., from a deposition when their American Airlines plane crashed with an Army Black Hawk helicopter, according to Original Jurisdiction.

Keys, a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, clerked for U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia before joining Wilkinson Stekloff in December 2021. During law school, she was the managing editor of the Georgetown Food and Drug Law Journal.

While an undergraduate at Tufts University, Keys was part of the sailing team, her partner, David Seidman, told Law.com.

David A. Super, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, told Law360 that Keys was “an extraordinary law student and an even better person.” Keys “was everything a great lawyer should be: meticulous but creative, focused but flexible, professional but kind,” Super said.

Best worked for Teach for America before attending the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. She graduated in 2021. She clerked for U.S. District Judge John Cronan of the Southern District of New York, U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Judge Eugene E. Siler Jr. of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Cincinnati.

Best began work at Wilkinson Stekloff in November.

Cronan told Law360 that Best would spend hours mentoring law student interns to help them with research and writing.

“She was so caring and thoughtful and generous and had a wonderful sense of humor,” Cronan said.

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Educators and students preparing to begin a new semester can make good use of lessons about leadership and purposeful service that can be gleaned from the beautiful life of former President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter. That is especially so for law school communities for at least two reasons.

First, although lawyers are a tiny fraction of the population (0.4% nationally according to the ABA, four for every 1,000 people), they have always achieved a disproportionately large presence in public and private sector leadership roles. Accordingly, U.S. law schools are focusing on how best to prepare students for leadership roles. Carter’s life is a rich case study of the virtues of civility, collaboration and cooperation that the ABA has identified as hallmarks of professionalism.

Second, with the privileges of our honorable profession come public responsibilities. We can use our knowledge and skills to do well, but we a requirement of our law licenses is to strive to do good, as well, through pro bono work and other selfless service. Carter’s relentless determination to make the world better for others is a shining beacon for aspiring lawyers to follow.

Amid a constant barrage of disturbing news, even the gloomiest short days and long dark nights of this new year are brightened by remembering Carter.

Understandably and appropriately, people everywhere are discussing the lessons of Carter’s life. He deserves recognition for being a good and decent man committed to unwavering public service to his country and people all over the world. Perhaps he will be remembered most and longest for what he taught us about how to work and live.

In retrospect, the restless striving that helped clear his improbable untrod path—from the farmland of a small town in Georgia to commanding a nuclear submarine, from the statehouse in Georgia as a contrarian anti-segregation governor to the White House, followed by four decades as the most stubbornly impactful humanitarian on the planet—was driven by hard work, perseverance in the face of setbacks, strength of character, and virtue grounded in the universal code of conduct that he drew from his faith. These are qualities that serve any law student and lawyer well.

Historians, in my opinion, are likely to agree with former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who chaffed when people described her husband as the greatest former president. She often would correct them by pointing out that he was an excellent president, as well. Actually, we got two terms of work out of Carter during his single term.

A few days after he was sworn in, Carter moved to heal old wounds. He granted complete amnesty to Vietnam draft evaders, and his daughter Amy began fourth grade in a historic Black public elementary school a few blocks from the White House. He successfully pursued the Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt (which stand to this day), the Panama Canal treaties and the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II.

Working with Congress, he established the Department of Energy and the Department of Education, sought and signed legislation limiting strip mining, and created the vast Arctic Refuge while doubling the land dedicated to national parks and wildlife preserves. Carter wrestled with “stagflation;” energy crises; the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor disaster; the Nicaraguan revolution; the end of détente and the renewed Cold War over the Soviets invasion of Afghanistan, which precipitated embargoes and the boycott of the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow; and, of course, the Iranian hostage crises and disastrous failed rescue attempt.

On Jan. 20, 1977, during Carter’s inauguration, my wife, Marla, and I somehow wormed our way into the front row of the enormous crowd lining the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route. Unabated patriotism and pride from the recent bicentennial observances bolstered the collective sense of relief and expectation for Carter’s presidency in those post-Watergate days, when the country also was still pained by the fractures of the Cold War, the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War.

Suddenly, the new president’s long black bullet-proof limousine stopped right in front of us. Carter and his beloved, Rosalynn, got out and a started walking hand in hand toward the White House. He flashed his signature toothy grin and waved, and the crowd roared its delighted approval. Every single person among the thousands there felt as if Carter was waving and smiling at each of them. Now, an inaugural stroll has become an obligatory (and carefully orchestrated) ritual, like routinely recognizing special guests in the balcony seats at the State of the Union speech. In 1977, it was a spontaneous joyful brave gesture.

Carter was then, and always, an American original, an uncommon man with an innate genuine common touch. A teacher.

After Carter lost the 1980 presidential election in a landslide to former President Ronald Reagan, the Carters devoted themselves energetically to a life of service to others, including work in communities building housing for less-advantaged Americans; humanitarian and social good works at home and abroad, such as monitoring elections; and advocating for environmental protection, peace and world health causes. He even is credited with eradicating a 3-foot-long Guinea worm parasite that each year preyed on millions of people in Africa and Asia.

The Carters remained true to their humble mission, even as accolades like the Nobel Peace Prize piled up, along with unusual honors, such as having a naval ship and a fish species named after Carter. Throughout it all, he taught Sunday school deep into his 90s. Practicing what he preached, he leveraged his fame not for profit but to advocate human rights and love for his neighbors in hot spots all over the world courageously and often controversially.

On Aug. 25, 2009, news of the death of my former boss, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, reached us on our mobile phones just before the flight attendants secured the door for a long flight home from a trip to Israel. We had been talking about Kennedy’s failing health the previous evening at dinner in the lovely gardens of the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem.

At that dinner, Carter and Rosalynn were, to our surprise, enjoying a quiet meal a few tables away. We asked the headwaiter to deliver a note thanking them for their continuing public service. Carter’s unexpected return note was extraordinarily gracious.

As we continued our dinner, we recounted the bitter Democratic Party presidential primary fight in 1980 between Carter and Kennedy. We especially recalled the awkward moment on the convention stage when, after Carter secured the nomination, he unsuccessfully tried to get Kennedy to shake hands and pose together. It must have been painfully embarrassing for the sitting president to unsuccessfully chase the iconic senator around the convention stage for a photo op of unity that never happened. But Carter tried.

Poignantly, after we landed in Philadelphia, as we walked through the concourse, the first voice we heard on an airport television, delivering a touching elegy for Kennedy, was Carter, speaking via satellite link from Israel. We cried.

The respectful attention deservedly being paid to Carter’s remarkable life and career provides us with a powerful teaching moment. Not a bad lesson for law students and lawyers from a life well lived by a great teacher.

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Nicholas W. Allard is the founding Randall C. Berg Jr. dean of the Jacksonville University College of Law in Florida and previously was the president and dean of the Brooklyn Law School in New York. Allard has worked as the chair of the ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress, as the chair of its Communications Committee, as a member of the ABA Government Relations Committee, and as a member of its Task Force on Lobbying Reform.

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ABAJournal.com is accepting queries for original, thoughtful, nonpromotional articles and commentary by unpaid contributors to run in the Your Voice section. Details and submission guidelines are posted at “Your Submissions, Your Voice.”

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This column reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily the views of the ABA Journal—or the American Bar Association.

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Obituaries

Arizona judge who championed domestic violence survivors dies at 77

By Lee Rawles

January 9, 2025, 2:54 pm CST

Judge Elizabeth “Ellie” Finn, a champion of specialized courts who served as a judge in Arizona for more than 42 years, died Dec. 27 at age 77.

The ABA Journal featured Finn in its Members Who Inspire series in September, highlighting her work establishing the Glendale Mental Health Court in Glendale, Arizona, and crafting domestic violence legislation in the state.

Finn served as the presiding judge of the Glendale City Court in Glendale, Arizona, for the last 18 years of her career and wrote about her role for the Journal’s Defending Justice series.

“When I was appointed, the mayor and council indicated they did not really know what occurs at the court,” Finn wrote. “I realized an important aspect of my position would be that of a communicator, ensuring transparency and that there are no surprises.”

In addition, Finn had been active in the ABA since joining the association in 2005. She was a member of the House of Delegates and of the Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence. Finn was also a former chair of the National Conference of Specialized Court Judges and served on its executive committee. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer shortly after attending the ABA Annual Meeting in 2022.

“She was a dedicated passionate advocate and strong believer in the good work of the ABA and CDSV in advancing education of judges and lawyers on domestic violence, as well as advancing protective policies for survivors,” says Vivian Huelgo, a former chief counsel for the commission.

When asked why she became so involved with domestic violence policy, Finn told the Journal that it did not stem from personal experience with the issue or with a survivor.

“It was just something where I saw a need and felt like I could do something to help,” she said.

Finn is survived by her husband, Edward Turner, and her children, Sarah Turner and Jesse Turner. According to her obituary, Finn “enjoyed traveling with her husband, particularly to Southern California for the boating life. Her recreational passions included reading mystery and romance novels, dancing and officiating weddings for friends and family.”

Finn’s memorial service will be at the Glendale Civic Center on Jan. 12 at 1 p.m., followed by a reception. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to A New Leaf, an Arizona nonprofit supporting the homeless and survivors of domestic violence.

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3. Our top LinkedIn posts of 2024

Year in Review

Our top LinkedIn posts of 2024

By Jackson A. Thomas

December 23, 2024, 10:54 am CST

As we close the door on 2024 and step into 2025, we’re giving readers a behind-the-scenes look at the ABA Journal’s LinkedIn page and social media analytics.

There are many ways to gauge engagement on LinkedIn. But this year, we’ve chosen to show you the Journal’s LinkedIn social media posts that received the most clicks, the most comments and the most reactions.

Contribute to the discussion by following the Journal’s LinkedIn page here.

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Most clicks

1. May 14 – An associate clinical professor at the Mississippi College School of Law died over the weekend in a fatal shooting that also claimed the lives of her mother and sister.

2. April 10 – Alex Spiro, a partner with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, wrongly appeared at a Texas deposition without pro hac vice permission and then proceeded to act in a “ridiculously unprofessional” manner, according to a sanctions motion.

3. May 9 – A woman who served six months in prison at Rikers Island in New York as a teenager passed the bar exam on the first try, a moment captured in a viral video posted to TikTok.

4. Aug. 24 – Vice President Kamala Harris would be the second president with a law degree from a school outside the top 14 if she is elected president.

5. May 20 – BigLaw firm will pay up to $20M to top partners, an amount needed “to be at the big table.”

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Most comments

1. May 7 – Thirteen federal judges, all of them appointees of former President Donald Trump, have announced that they won’t hire clerks who graduate from Columbia University or Columbia Law School.

2. Aug. 24 – Vice President Kamala Harris would be the second president with a law degree from a school outside the top 14 if she is elected president.

3. May 14 – An associate clinical professor at the Mississippi College School of Law died over the weekend in a fatal shooting that also claimed the lives of her mother and sister.

4. Feb. 27 – Is SCOTUS making it harder to teach constitutional law? Profs “depleted” and taken aback by “velocity” of change.

5. Jan. 16 – A murder defendant whose lawyer slept during parts of the trial was denied his right to counsel under the state constitution, entitling him to a new trial, the top court in Massachusetts has ruled.

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Most reactions

1. May 9 – A woman who served six months in prison at Rikers Island in New York as a teenager passed the bar exam on the first try, a moment captured in a viral video posted to TikTok.

2. Jan. 10 – Women have a slight majority in the ranks of associates at U.S. law firms, the National Association for Law Placement says in its latest diversity report.

3. May 14 – An associate clinical professor at the Mississippi College School of Law died over the weekend in a fatal shooting that also claimed the lives of her mother and sister.

4. Jan. 14 – Women have a slight majority in the ranks of associates at U.S. law firms, the National Association for Law Placement says in its latest diversity report.

5. Jan. 17 – Opposing counsel may want to watch out for Rochelle Ballantyne, a first-year litigation associate at Sidley Austin and a longtime chess champ with a fierce competitive spirit.

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Obituaries

Federal judge who ‘despised obituaries written by funeral home hacks’ wrote his own

By Debra Cassens Weiss

April 4, 2024, 9:27 am CDT

Senior U.S. District Judge Roger Hugh Lawson Jr. wanted to make sure that his obituary didn’t include trite phrases, such as a declaration that the memory of the deceased would be “forever treasured.” Anyone who wrote that “should be shot,” according to Lawson.

Lawson “despised obituaries written by funeral home hacks,” so he wrote his own, he explained in an obituary published after his death March 29 at age 82.

Law360 has the story on Lawson, a federal judge in the Middle District of Georgia, who had many interests outside the law, including fishing, camping and “piddling around on his farm.”

Lawson’s first experience as a judge was on a Georgia superior court in a district that included his hometown of Hawkinsville, Georgia.

He had once “entertained ambitions to be translated to the Supreme Court of Georgia,” the obituary said. “In this, he was spectacularly unsuccessful, but as is often the case, the cloud of this failure had a silver lining.”

Then-President Bill Clinton appointed him to the federal bench.

“Judge Lawson later acknowledged his debt to Gov. Zell Miller for thrice declining to appoint him to the supreme court.”

Lawson’s first job was in his father’s law office.

“To say that they had a good time together would be like describing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as a vocal group,” he wrote. “They handled anything that came through the door, except bankruptcy and tax matters. They worked hard, were unusually successful, abused tobacco, and (if they felt the occasion warranted) drank a good deal of whiskey. All in all, it was a great life.”

Lawson was “fond of quoting his father’s observation that there are only two things a man needs to know to keep women happy, but no one knows what they are.” He was married twice and had three children with his first wife.

“In 1977,” the obituary said, Lawson “discovered that Indiana was a hotbed of classy, high-octane, low-maintenance women, and on Dec. 25 of that year, he married Barbara Boots of Crawfordsville, who proved to be as advertised. She was a domestic paragon, a dedicated musician and the ideal wife. Her ebullient disposition, delight in domestic creativity and insistence on cleanliness and order resulted in a haven of tranquility, pleasure and repose for her husband and family. She brought as dowry three more small but loud and hyperactive children. Dowry notwithstanding, Judge Lawson said that as he had underwritten the expense of raising and educating all these children, they all belonged to him, and he loved them equally. In fact, he said, each was his favorite child.”

Lawson was an active member of the Hawkinsville First United Methodist Church, and he was a member of many clubs.

“He was a Mason, a Shriner, a Rotarian and a member of the Gridiron Secret Society,” the obituary said. “He enjoyed initiations.”

“Judge Lawson lived his life with few regrets,” the obituary said. “He admitted to frequent mistakes, paid for them and moved on having learned his lessons without dwelling on the tortures of hindsight. He conducted his affairs with the confidence of a Christian holding four aces.”

His last conscious thought was, “Barbara,” he wrote.