Melanie Beth Abbott

Melanie Beth Abbott, retired Law Professor, age 72, of Branford passed away February 13, 2024. Born in New Haven on August 21, 1951, she was the daughter of the late Rev. John Abbott and Virginia (Towns) Abbott and sister of the late Timothy Abbott. She grew up in Hamden and she lived most of her life in Branford.

Melanie attended Bates College in Maine for her undergraduate degree and Syracuse University for a Master’s degree. She graduated from Bridgeport Law School (now Quinnipiac University) in 1984. Melanie joined the University of Bridgeport (now Quinnipiac) law faculty in 1989, after clerking for the Hon. Ellen Bree Burns, U.S. District Court-D. Conn., Hon. Thomas J. Meskill, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and working as an associate at Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft in Washington, D.C. as well as Day, Berry & Howard in Hartford, CT.

Melanie was committed to studying and addressing poverty and its interactions with law and policy. She devoted much of her professional and personal energy to this cause. In 1996, with Peter Yarrow of the famed folk trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, she founded the Law Students’ Legal Action Fellowships to support law students who want to use their skills creatively on projects in the public interest.

Melanie served as a faculty advisor to QUSL’s Public Interest Law Project and worked with students on many initiatives connected to her Poverty Law course, including food, clothing and toy drives, preparation and serving of Thanksgiving dinners, and providing legal services outreach to low-income communities and people experiencing homelessness. Her scholarship focused on poverty, homelessness, and policy interventions to alleviate these ills.

Melanie’s colleagues and friends benefitted from her warmth, humor, and care for students. Her song parodies, and occasional performances in community musical theatre productions reflected her creative side; her beloved Flat Coated Retrievers (with whom she competed in dog agility trials) reflected her sporting side.

This balance and integration are reflected in Professor Abbott’s service as an Advisory Board member in the Center for Third Age Leadership, a consortium of business and academic professionals educating baby-boomers about opportunities to continue to work and contribute in “post-retirement” years. About this project, Professor Abbott has said, “Lawyers work very hard for a long time, and they get through the whole process and they think, ‘Is that all there is?…[The Center for Third Age Leadership asks] what these people can do either within the practice or outside the profession to give themselves a chance to experience their whole self rather than just part of their life.”

Friends are invited to gather from 3:00-4:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 22, 2024, at Beecher & Bennett Funeral Home, 2300 Whitney Avenue, Hamden. Interment will be private. Contributions in Melanie’s memory may be made to the Quinnipiac University School of Law Public Interest Law Project. Online gifts can be made at: www.qu.edu/givelaw.