IU McKinney Law Mourns Professor Emeritus James P. White (obituary):

The IU McKinney School of Law community is sad to announce the passing of Professor Emeritus James P. White, who died May 1, 2025 at the age of 93.

Professor White devoted over 50 years to educating future lawyers at the IU McKinney School of Law. He joined the faculty in 1966 and became Professor Emeritus in 2002. He taught a primer in American law, as well as courses on the legal profession and comparative law.

Professor White served as a Consultant on Legal Education to the American Bar Association for 26 years and was instrumental in bringing that office to the IU Indianapolis campus during his tenure at the ABA. His work included a complete restructuring of the law school accreditation system. Because the accreditation process and the work of the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar are driven by volunteers, one of his most important roles was recruiting, training, and nurturing hundreds of volunteers. Under his leadership, the ABA strengthened its quality and diversity standards for accreditation. The ABA held workshops for deans and other faculty, enhanced clinical legal education, and initiated programs to assist law schools in their development.

Robert A. Stein, former executive director of the ABA commented, “Jim White is more responsible and deserves more credit than any other person for the high quality of legal education in the United States.” Former Association of American Law Schools’ (AALS) executive director, Carl Monk, stated, “Jim White was the principal architect of many of the features that make U.S. legal education what it is today.” …

When Professor White retired from the ABA, members of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, along with others, established an endowed annual lecture series at IU McKinney in his honor. He used his vast professional connections to bring four U.S. Supreme Court Justices—Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy, and Chief Justice John Roberts—along with jurists and legal scholars from around the world to Indianapolis to interact with students, faculty, and the legal community. 

(Hat Tip: Ronald F. Phillips, Pepperdine Senior Vice-Chancellor and Dean Emeritus)

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