Minna Kotkin, a lawyer and professor of law who lived in Brooklyn and on Red Dirt Road in Springs, died on Sept. 30 after being taken to the hospital three days prior. The cause was heart failure.
Ms. Kotkin joined the Brooklyn Law School faculty in 1984. There, she specialized in employment discrimination law and sexual harassment issues and taught civil procedure, administrative law, and civil rights law. She served at various times as the chairwoman of the Association of American Law Schools' Sections on Litigation and Clinical Legal Education, on the steering committee of the association's Equal Justice Project, on the board of editors of the Clinical Law Review, and on the boards of directors of the Global Alliance for Justice Education, Disability Advocates, the Eastern District of New York Litigation Fund, MFY legal Services, and Manhattan legal Services.
Ms. Kotkin was considered by Brooklyn Law School to be a "trailblazer in employment law and sexual harassment law."
She had spent time as a visiting scholar at the New York University School of Law, the University of East London, and the University of Cape Town. Before joining the faculty at Brooklyn Law, she was the litigation director of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and a litigation associate at Proskauer Rose.
Friends said they had always admired Ms. Kotkin's passion for teaching law, her spirit and fierce intelligence, and her expressive looks. They said that she had a great laugh as well.
Born in Philadelphia on Jan. 13, 1951, she was the daughter of Edward Kotkin and the former Anne Ludwig. Ms. Kotkin attended schools in suburban Philadelphia and earned a B.A. in English at Barnard College in 1972 and a J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law, where she was the editor in chief of the law review.
She married Joseph Stillman in November 1977 and they had two sons, Eli Sherwood Stillman of Brooklyn and Samuel Emmet Stillman of New York City.
Ms. Kotkin's partner, Deena Hellman, her two sons, and Mr. Stillman survive. She was cremated. The family had a small memorial at Riverside Chapel in the city on Oct. 3.
