Drake University Law School is the

law school A law school (also known as a law centre/center, college of law, or faculty of law) is an institution, professional school, or department of a college or university specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for b ...

affiliated with

Drake University Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. The University offers over 140 undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, education, Legal education, law, and pharmacy. Drake U ...

, located in

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

. Over 330 full-time students attend the institution. Roscoe Jones, Jr. serves as the dean of the Law School. Founded in 1865, Drake Law School is one of the 25 oldest law schools in the United States. It was established by

Iowa Supreme Court The Iowa Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Iowa. The Court is composed of a chief justice and six associate justices. The Court holds its regular sessions in Des Moines in the Iowa Judicial Branch Building located at 1111 ...

justices

George G. Wright George Grover Wright (March 24, 1820January 11, 1896) was a pioneer lawyer, Iowa Supreme Court justice, law professor, and Republican United States Senator from Iowa. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, he attended private schools and graduated from In ...

and Chester Cole, who aimed to teach law in proximity to the courts so students could witness the law in action.

History

Established in 1865 by Chester C. Cole, a justice of the

, Drake Law School is one of the top 25 oldest law schools in the country and the second law school founded west of the Mississippi River after the University of Iowa, which Justice Cole co-founded with Justice

. Justice Cole felt that having a law school located in the state capital would be advantageous. In time, Drake Law alumni would fill the ranks of all branches of Iowa local and state government.

Programs

In addition to the full-scale, three-year,

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

program, the law school features the following special programs: * ''Drake Law Review'' * ''Drake Journal of Agricultural Law'' * 5 Research Centers: Agricultural Law, Children's Rights, Constitutional Law, Intellectual Property, and Legislative Practice * Certificate programs in several fields * Civil and Criminal Clinical Programs * Multiple Moot Court and Mock Trial teams * Summer in France Program * Summer Institute in Constitutional Law (for entering 1Ls) * LL.M./M.J. Program in Intellectual Property * M.J. Program in Health Law * LL.M./M.J. Program in Individualized Legal Studies (Concentrations in: Business Law, Criminal Law, Estate Planning, Family Counseling and the Law, Human Rights and Global Citizenship, Legislative Practice and Government Relations, Sustainable Development)

Drake Law Review

The ''Drake Law Review'' is nationally ranked among the top 40 law journals for the number of times courts have cited its articles. Drake is in the top group of more than 1,640 journals in the rankings. Drake University Law School - Cartwright Hall

Drake University Law School - Cartwright Hall

The ''Drake Law Review'' is published quarterly by Drake Law students. In the past few years, the ''Drake Law Review'' has published articles by distinguished legal scholars and judges, including:

Erwin Chemerinsky Erwin Chemerinsky (born May 14, 1953) is an American legal scholar known for his studies of U.S. constitutional law and federal civil procedure. Since 2017, Chemerinsky has been the dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. Previously, he was th ...

Cass Sunstein Cass Robert Sunstein (born September 21, 1954) is an American legal scholar known for his work in U.S. constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, and behavioral economics. He is also ''The New York Times'' best-selling author of ...

Randy Barnett Randy Evan Barnett (born February 5, 1952) is an American legal scholar. He serves as the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University, where he teaches constitutional law and contracts, and is the director of the Georg ...

Cheryl Harris Cheryl I. Harris is an American legal scholar and critical race theorist. She is a professor of civil rights and civil liberties at the UCLA School of Law. Harris is widely known for "Whiteness as Property", published in the June 1993 edition o ...

Paul Brest Paul Brest (born 1940) is an American legal scholar who is a former president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and a former dean of Stanford Law School. He is credited with coining the name originalism to describe a particular appro ...

, Stephen Carter, Michael Gerhardt, Chief Justice

John G. Roberts John Glover Roberts Jr. (born January 27, 1955) is an American jurist serving since 2005 as the 17th chief justice of the United States. He has been described as having a moderate conservative judicial philosophy, though he is primarily an ...

Jr., and

Stephen Rapp Stephen J. Rapp (born January 26, 1949) is an American lawyer, academic and former politician who served as United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, United States ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues in the Office of Global C ...

(Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations Special Court for Sierra Leone).

Notable alumni

Drake Law has graduated numerous significant lawyers, including several state/federal judges and politicians, including: *

Sean Bagniewski Sean Bagniewski (born 1983) is an American politician and attorney who has represented the 35th district in the Iowa House of Representatives since January 2023, which consists of parts of northwest Des Moines in Polk County. He is a member of ...

, member of the

Iowa House of Representatives The Iowa House of Representatives is the lower house of the Iowa General Assembly, the upper house being the Iowa Senate. There are 100 seats in the Iowa House of Representatives, representing 100 single-member districts across the state, formed ...

* Turner W. Bell, pioneering black criminal defense attorney * Mark W. Bennett, former federal judge for the Northern District of Iowa * Robert D. Blue, former governor of Iowa *

Terry Branstad Terry Edward Branstad (born November 17, 1946) is a retired American politician who served as the 39th and 42nd governor of Iowa (1983–1999; 2011–2017) and the United States ambassador to China (2017–2020). A member of the Repu ...

, former and longest-serving governor of Iowa, former U.S. Ambassador to China *

Mark Cady Mark Steven Cady (July 12, 1953 – November 15, 2019) was an American jurist. He served on the Iowa Supreme Court for 21 years from 1998 to 2019. From 2011 to 2019, he was the chief justice of the court. He was the author of the court's opinion i ...

, former chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court * Russell C. Davis, United States Air Force lieutenant general * George Gardner Fagg,

United States federal judge In the United States, a federal judge is a judge who serves on a court established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. Often called "Article III judges", federal judges include the chief justice and associate justices of the U.S. S ...

on the

United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (in case citations, 8th Cir.) is a United States federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States district courts: * Eastern District of Arkansas * Western ...

* Adam Gregg, former

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

lieutenant governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

* James E. Gritzner, federal judge for the Southern District of Iowa since 2002 * John Alfred Jarvey, former federal judge for the Southern District of Iowa from 2007 to 2022 * Daniel Jay, former member of the

* Gary Lambert (politician), former

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

state senator A state senator is a member of a State legislature (United States), state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. History There are typically fewer state senators than there ...

* Louis A. Lavorato, former chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court *

Dustin Manwaring Dustin Whitney Manwaring is an American attorney and politician serving as a Republican member of the Idaho House of Representatives. Early life and education Manwaring was raised in Blackfoot, Idaho, and graduated from Blackfoot High School. ...

, member of the

Idaho House of Representatives The Idaho House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the Idaho Legislature. It consists of 70 representatives elected to two-year terms. The state is divided into 35 districts, each of which elects two representatives to separate seats. ...

* Brian Meyer, member of the

* C. Edwin Moore, former chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court *

Jim Nussle James Allen Nussle (born June 27, 1960) is an American businessman and retired politician who has been president and chief executive officer of the Credit Union National Association from 2014 to 2024 and of its successor group America's Credit U ...

, former member of the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

and Director of the

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). The office's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, while it also examines agency pro ...

* Dwight D. Opperman, former CEO of

West Publishing Company West (also known by its original name, West Publishing) is a business owned by Thomson Reuters that publishes legal, business, and regulatory information in print, and on electronic services such as Westlaw. Since the late 19th century, West has ...

* James W. Porter, chief justice of the Idaho Supreme Court"Justice Porter Is Claimed by Death", ''The Twin Falls Times-News'' (December 9, 1959), p. 1, 2. * Robert D. Ray, former governor of Iowa *

Ione Genevieve Shadduck Ione Genevieve Shadduck was an educator, women's rights activist, and attorney. She is known for advocating for equal pay and her work in physical education at Drake University. She was a veteran of the Korean War. Early life and education ...

, educator, women's rights activist, and attorney * Neal Smith, former member of the

* Marsha Ternus, former chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court *

Jack Whitver Jack Whitver (born September 4, 1980) is an American businessman and politician, who is currently the Iowa State Senator for the 23rd District. Since 2018 he has served as Senate Majority Leader. Business career Whitver founded Acceleratio ...

, current

and Senate Majority Leader *

David Wiggins David Wiggins (born 1933) is an English moral philosopher, metaphysician, and philosophical logician working especially on identity and issues in meta-ethics. Biography David Wiggins was born on 8 March 1933 in London, the son of Norman an ...

, former justice of the Iowa Supreme Court * Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., President and CEO of the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM)

Employment

According to Drake's official ABA-required disclosures, 94-95% of the classes of 2022, 2023, and 2024 obtained full-time, long-term, bar passage required jobs 10 months after graduation.

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Drake for the 2024-2025 academic year is $68,974. Drake Law School offers both guaranteed and conditional scholarships, that latter of which depend upon the student maintaining a specific grade point average, rather than remaining in good academic standing.

References

External links

''The Drake University Bulletin''
Volume 7, Issue 1, (Drake University Law School history), Drake University, 1903. {{authority control Law schools in Iowa Drake University Universities and colleges established in 1865 1865 establishments in Iowa